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/• 




JOHN MILTON. 



The Silver Series of English Classics 



MILTON'S 



PARADISE LOST 



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EDITED WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES 



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PUBLISHERS' ANNOUNCEMENT. 



The Silver Series of English Classics is designed to fur- 
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3 



4 publishers' announcement. 

the essay, is shown in the Introduction the difference between the 
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INTRODUCTION. 



Milton has been represented as " a grand and solitary 
figure in English literature " ; as standing " apart, dignified, 
sublime, the great epic poet of our language." 

This description is suited to the poet not only as a literary 
character, but as a man, — dwelling apart from the busy 
world in the seclusion of his own meditations, and at last, in 
his blindness, " from the cheerful ways of men cut off." 

Although obliged to take sides in the political struggle 
between King and Parliament, and to become the secretary 
of Cromwell, the work he wrought was that of- an author in 
his study rather than that of a man of affairs. He was 
alienated from his family, as husband and father, and even 
in religious affiliations ; being neither Presbyterian, Puritan, 
nor Independent, he found no great comfort in the rites or 
fellowships of the church. His opinions were his own ; he 
shared them with few of his contemporaries and lived in 
communion with the dead more than with the living ; with 
" Blind Thamyris and blind Mseonides, and Tiresias and 
Phineus, j)rc)phets old." 

Milton was born in Cheapside, Bread Street, London, 
December 9, 1608. The house wherein he first saw the light 
remained a part of his estate as long as he lived. His 
father, " an eminent scrivener " (or notary, who drew up 
contracts), was educated at Oxford, but was disinherited by 

5 



6 JOHN MILTON. 

his father, a bigoted Komanistj because he embraced the 
reformed doctrines. 

The coat of arms of the family, a spread eagle with two 
heads, came with Milton's mother, Sarah Caston, who was 
celebrated for her piety and her liberality to the poor. With 
the expectation of a fair inheritance, Milton at fifteen years 
of age was sent to St. Paul's school, where he studied hard, 
especially in poetry and the classics, and laid the foundation 
for his future eminence. 

In his seventeenth year (1625), he was admitted as a 
pensioner at Christ's College, Cambridge, Avhere he soon 
became distinguished for his elegant style and skill in the 
use of the Latin language. But he disliked the discipline 
of the college, then more strict than in later days, and was 
free in his censures on the established system. 

His parents destined him for the church, but he was 
unwilling to subscribe to the Articles upon coming of age, 
and when he left the college in 1629, he retired to his 
father's country house at Horton in Buckinghamshire, where 
for six years he gave himself up to severe study. His 
facility in the perusal of Greek and Latin authors was 
remarkable, and his industry was unwearied. It is un- 
doubtedly true that few men, if any, have mastered more 
things worth mastering in art, letters, and scholarship than 
did Milton in these five years of self-centered isolation. 
It is supposed that during this period he wrote his 
" Arcades," " Comus," " L'Allegro," " II Penseroso," and 
" Lycidas." The " Masque of Comus " was acted in 1634 
in Ludlow, at the residence of the Earl of Bridgewater, who 
had been appointed Lord President of Wales, the play being 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

founded on an occurrence in his family. The Earl's sons 
and his daughter took part in the play. 

Milton's mother died in 1637, and he went abroad. At 
Paris he was presented to the famous historian Grotius, 
then Swedish ambassador. During the year or more of 
his travels, he visited the principal cities of Italy, and was 
cordially received by distinguished scholars who appre- 
ciated his profound and elegant attainments. At Florence 
he saw Galileo in his retirement at Arcetri, and in Rome, 
where he remained two months. Cardinal Barbarini showed 
him great civility. In Naples he was introduced to Manso, 
Marquis of Villa, the patron and biographer of Tasso. To 
this marquis, Milton addressed his beautiful Latin poem. 
Dr. Johnson, who was severe in his criticism of Milton's 
opinions, allowed that this poem must have raised English 
literary ability to a high place in the estimation of Italian 
scholars at that time. It had been Milton's intention to 
remain abroad longer, but news of political troubles in 
England hastened his return. " I considered it," he wrote, 
" dishonorable to be enjoying myself at my ease in for- 
eign lands, while my countrymen were striking a blow 
for freedom." He returned to England about the time 
of Charles's second expedition against the Scots, not long 
before the assembling of the Long Parliament. He took 
lodgings in Elect Street, London, and soon hired a large 
house in Aldersgate Street, where he received as pupils 
the sons of gentlemen who were his friends. His allow- 
ance from his father was but little, and pedagogy, to which 
he turned for an increase of income, did not prove to be 
a success. 



8 JOHN MILTON. 

Literary pursuits were more to his taste, and, waxing 
warm on the political condition of his country, he now, in 
1641, became involved in the struggle of the times. He pub- 
lished his treatise on Eeformation, against the bishops of 
the Established Church ; also other books and pamphlets in 
favor of the new ideas. Milton at that period simply de- 
sired to bring the Episcopal form nearer the apostolic 
standard. 

He afterward engaged hotly in the great questions of the 
day, seeing that it needed a strong pen to combat the 
documents put forth by the Koyalists. Milton the con- 
troversialist was, however, much inferior to Milton the poet. 
In 1643, in his thirty-fifth year, he married Mary Powell, 
the gay daughter of a Cavalier, but found little happiness in 
wedded life. When his wife returned to her father's house, 
he published, in 1644, his "Doctrine and Discipline of 
Divorce," a work which added nothing to his fame. The 
same year, among other treatises, he issued the "Areopa- 
gitica, or Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing," 
one of the finest of his prose productions. 

In 1648-49 he wrote against the Presbyterians, who con- 
demned the Protector for the death of Charles I. In 1649-50, 
he answered the book of the Leyden professor, Salmasius, 
called " Def ensio Regia," in support of the divine right of 
kings. Milton's reply, "Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio," 
was published in 1651. It was in the preparation of this 
work that Milton sacrificed his little remaining eyesight, 
the sight of one eye having been previously lost. In 1652 
he became totally blind. A second defense followed, in 
1654, containing an eloquent eulogy on Cromwell. The 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

author had been appointed secretary to the Council of State 
in 1649, and afterwards (1653) became secretary to Crom- 
well. 

The Eestoration of Charles II., in 1660, overthrew the 
political party to the support of whose principles Milton 
had given twenty of the best years of his life. He shared 
the fate of other Independents, in the downfall of his 
political hopes, but was thus left free to take up that nobler 
work for which he was better suited, — the pursuit of litera- 
ture. With the fall of the republic, he could once more 
entertain his lifelong dream, — the ambition to write a great 
epic. It was at this time (1665) that he completed his 
grand work, " Paradise Lost," which had been begun several 
years before. He also Avrote his "History of England,", 
y Paradise Kegained," and " Samson Agonistes " (1671), and 
/several logical and theological works, having the assistance, 
in his blindness, of his daughters and some young men to 
whom he dictated. It is said that he taught his daughters 
to read foreign languages without understanding them, 
making their labor of reading to him thus unintelligently 
an irksome task. 

Milton's final work, which he was preparing for the press 
at the time of his death, was a " Treatise on Christian 
Doctrine," a theological compendium which showed a spirit 
of fervent piety. 

He died November 8, 1674, bequeathing to posterity, as 
his richest legacy among the many monuments of his genius, 
the greatest epic poem in the English tongue, "Paradise 
Lost." 

This work was completed in 1665, after eight years of 



10 JOHN MILTON. 

labor. It stood in its day for the best religious thought 
and influenced the theology of many succeeding genera- 
tions. It was not appreciated by most of the author's 
contemporaries, and he received for it only ten pounds. 
For all that, it has no "middle flight," but soars 

"Above the Aonian mount, while it pursues 
Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme." 

We cannot think of Milton's life as fortunate or happy 
in external conditions. His patrimony was scanty, his 
emoluments were few, his eyesight lost, and his domestic 
life uncongenial. His temperament, severe and stoical, 
was not calculated to give him serenity or satisfaction. 
His first wife died in 1653, leaving him three daughters, 
whom he called unfilial. His second wife, nee Miss Wood- 
cock, died in 1658, fifteen months after their marriage, 
and in 1663 he married Elizabeth Minshull, who survived 
him fifty-two years. In his old age he had the pain of 
seeing his country given over to frivolity and corruption, 
with Charles II. on the throne. 

And yet, if lofty aspirations, transcendent abilities, and 
unconquerable religious faith have power to lift one above 
the mischances and misfortunes of life, Milton must have 
felt with satisfaction that he had won success out of seem- 
ing disaster and defeat. 



INTRODUCTION. 11 

THE EPIC POEM. 

Illustrated by Milton's "Paradise Lost/' 

"The noble and profound application of ideas to life/' 
says Matthew Arnold, " is the most essential part of poetic 
greatness." This is the characteristic style of epic poetry. 
The word " epic " is derived from e^jos, a word, a tale ; an 
epic poem is a narrative in verse, of an elevated character. 
The exploits of heroes are usually described ; also events 
of great importance. Por example, the subjects chosen 
by Milton in his great epic are : " the fate of worlds : 
the revolutions of heaven and of earth; rebellion against 
the supreme king, raised by the highest order of created 
beings ; the creation of a new race of reasonable creatures, 
their forfeiture of immortality, and their restoration to 
hope and peace." 

The great national epic poems of the world are Homer's 
" Iliad " and " Odyssey," for the Greeks ; the book of 
" Job," for the Hebrew nation ; the " Ji^neid " of Virgil, for 
the Latin race ; the " Mahabharata " and the " Ramayana " 
of Hindu origin; Dante's "Divine Comedy," for the Ital- 
ians ; the " Nibelungenlied " of the Germans ; the Spanish 
poem " Eomances of the Cid " ; and Milton's " Paradise 
Lost." 

These meet the requirements of heroic epic verse, — that 
it should deal with great passions and great actions, either 
of superhuman beings or of men. Coleridge thinks that 
an epic poem of the highest kind must have a personal 



12 THE EPIC POEM. 

interest ; therefore Tasso's " Jerusalem Delivered," by this 
canon, should be placed in a lower category than the epic 
poems above mentioned, because '' in the destruction (or 
deliverance) of Jerusalem, no genius or skill can possibly 
preserve the interest for the hero from being merged in the 
interest for the event." 

In the judgment of the same great authority, an epic 
poem must be either national or on a subject common to all 
mankind. Milton, in "Paradise Lost," chose the latter, 
and his theme, says Addison, is greater than either the 
"Iliad" or the ".^neid," because "it does not determine 
the fate of single persons or nations, but of a whole spe- 
cies." " There is an unquestionable magnificence in every 
part of 'Paradise Lost,' and indeed a much greater than 
could have been formed upon any pagan system." (Specta- 
tor, paper 267). "Paradise Lost" is the superior of these 
two epics in another respect. While Homer introduces 
some characters beneath the dignity of the epic, and Virgil 
falls short of Homer in both dignity and variety of the 
personages presented, Milton makes even Satan heroic ; 
and where this lofty personification is impossible, as in 
the case of Sin and Death, the shadowy and fictitious lift the 
allegorical into epic dignity. In treating of human beings, 
the epic-heroic style is maintained by the great poet, — 
a most difficult task. Adam and Eve, as Addison points 
out, are shown "in the highest innocence and perfection, 
and in the most abject state of guilt and infirmity." 

Not only must an epic poem present possible and 
natural creations of the imagination, but it must also 
abound in sublime conceptions. "Milton's characters. 



INTEODUCTION. 13 

most of them, lie out of nature, and were to be formed 
purely out of Ms invention. None but a poet of the most 
unbounded invention and the most exquisite judgment" 
could have combined, as Milton has done, the natural and 
the sublime with appropriate circumstances and conditions. 
There is nothing little, puerile, or Ioav in any of the situa- 
tions or conversations. Even Satan harangues his hosts 
in the grand style. Thus " Milton has carried our lan- 
guage to a greater height than any of the English poets 
have ever done before or after him, and made the sub- 
limity of his style equal to that of his sentiments " 
(Spectator, 285). 

To complete the interest awakened by the descriptions 
in " Paradise Lost," Milton not only preserves the dig- 
nity of the characters which " sport in the wide regions 
of possibility," but he also introduces a great variety of 
personages, illustrations, comparisons, and images. By 
this variety, he, like Homer in his agreeable episodes, 
relieves the reader's mind from the strain of a lofty 
subject, w^hich if continued too long oppresses the mind. 

From what has been said, it is easy to see how the epic 
differs from the ballad and the dramatic style. There is 
a dramatic element in "Paradise Lost," as when Satan de- 
livers his magnificent address to "Thrones, Principalities, 
and Powers." But the drama, as Milton shows it in his 
" Samson Agonistes," has an entirely different cast of char- 
acters and situations. It has also a plot, and uses language 
with freedom and unconventionality. 

"The ballad manner," says Matthew Arnold, "requires 
that an expression shall be plain and natural, and then it 



14 THE EPIC POEM. 

asks no more." The epic requires that an expression shall 
be noble. 

Matthew Arnold finds in the " Nibelungenlied" more of 
the qualities of the ballad manner than of the epic, inas- 
much as "based on grand traditions, which had found 
expression in a grand lyric poetry, it is itself anything 
rather than a grand poem." 

However this may be with reference to this particular 
poem (which Arnold, in spite of his criticism, calls an epic), 
there is such a marked lower pitch in the ballad, that its 
movement, diction, and theme will readily distinguish it 
from the stately epic verse. No one, for example, would 
ever mistake the style of Sir Walter Scott's poetry for that 
of Homer or Milton. 

With regard to the meter of "Paradise Lost," Milton 
calls it " English Heroic verse without Eime " ; we call it, 
familiarly and generally, blank verse. Milton regards 
" rime " as " no necessary adjunct or true ornament of 
poem or good verse, in longer works especially, but the inven- 
tion of a barbarous age, to set off wretched matter and lame 
meeter." He claims esteem for his kind of versification, 
as " an example set, the first in English, of ancient liberty 
recover'd to Heroic Poem, from the troublesome and modern 
bondage of Rimeing." 

In the use of blank verse by Milton, "the movement, 
the metrical cast corresponds," says Arnold, " with the mode 
of evolution of the thought ; with the syntactical cast, and 
is indeed determined by it. In reading Milton, you never 
lose the sense of laborious and condensed fullness. With 
Milton, line runs into line and all is straitly bound together. 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

The effect is often very powerful " ; but " this complicated 
evolution of the thought necessarily complicates the move- 
ment and rhythm." This accounts for the great variety of 
meter in Milton's epic poetry, and while the general effect 
is pleasing, its complications preclude any other definition 
than that it is Miltonic versification. As a model it is 
full of risks, because only a genius equal to that of Milton 
could preserve the grand style in the midst of such multi- 
tudinous variations. 

In Taine's " English Literature," Book II., Chapter VI., he 
tells us that Milton " employed poetry in a new service. . . . 
He thus made for himself a composite and brilliant style, 
less natural than that of his precursors, less fit for effusions, 
less akin to the lively first glow of sensation, but more solid, 
more regular, more capable of concentrating in one large 
patch of light, all their sparklings and splendors." This is 
Taine's general criticism of Milton's poetry ; but with regard 
to special phases of the poet's art, he speaks of Milton's 
" words of six cubits " ; of the poet as " deprived of the 
dramatic sensibility which creates varied and living souls ; 
he accumulates cold dissertations." But this critic allows 
that Milton aims at the sublime, and '' arrives at his point, 
by the accumulation of splendors, by the sustained fullness 
of poetic song, by the greatness of his allegories, the lofti- 
ness of his sentiments, the description of infinite objects 
and heroic emotions." We mention the criticisms of this 
gifted French writer, because, in spite of self-contradictions, 
he is always interesting and reflects a powerful critical 
school of his own country. 



16 THE EPIC POEM. 

From the comments which we have given above on 
Milton and the epic style, the conclusion is reached 
that the best writers and critics claim for an epic poem: 

(1) that it be elevated in subject, treatment, and language ; 

(2) that it must have a personal interest, either national 
or common to humanity; (3) that it should be written 
neither in the ballad nor in the dramatic style; and 
(4) that the meter best suited to it, at least in the Eng- 
lish tongue, is blank verse, with a wide latitude in the 
number of feet to the line, and in usages of rhythm. 

Finally, that, all in all, Milton's "Paradise Lost" pre- 
sents the best example of the epic poem in English Litera- 
ture, sustaining itself on an elevated plane throughout its 
entire length, and destined to remain for all coming gen- 
erations among the first of the great national epics of the 
world. 

The Arguments for the two Books of "Paradise Lost" 
here given will be found under the Notes. 



PARADISE LOST. 



BOOK I. 

)f Man's first disobedience, and the fruit 
Df that forbidden Tree whose mortal taste 
Brought death into the world, and all our woe, 
iVith loss of Eden, till one greater Man 
[Restore us, and regain the blissful seat, 5 

5ing, Heavenly Muse, that on the secret top 
3f Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire 
Chat shepherd, who first taught the chosen seed 
uU the beginning how the Heavens and Earth 
[lose out of Chaos : or, if Sion hill 10 

Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flowed 
^'ast by the oracle of God, I thence 
'nvoke thy aid to my adventrous song, 
rhat with no middle flight intends to soar 
ibove the Aonian mount, while it pursues 15 

rhings unattempted yet in prose or rhyme. 
Vnd chiefly thou, Spirit, that dost prefer 
Before all temples the upright heart and pure, 
'nstruct me, for thou know'st ; thou from the first 
►Vast present, and, with mighty wings outspread, 20 

Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast Abyss, 
\.nd niad'st it pregnant ; what in me is dark 
llumine, what is low raise and support, 
rhat to the height of this great argument 
'. may assert Eternal Providence, 25 

^nd justify the ways of God to men. 

17 



18 JOHN MILTON. 

Say first (for Heaven hides nothing from thy view, 
Nor the deep tract of Hell) say first what cause 
Moved our grand parents, in that happy state. 
Favored of Heaven so highly, to fall off 30 

From their Creator, and transgress his will 
For one restraint, lords of the world besides. 
Who first seduced them to that foul revolt ? 
The infernal Serpent ; he it was, whose guile. 
Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived 35 

The Mother of Mankind, what time his pride 
Had cast him out from Heaven, with all his host 
Of rebel Angels, by whose aid, aspiring 
To set himself in glory above his peers. 
He trusted to have equaled the Most High, 40 

If he opposed ; and with ambitious aim 
Against the throne and monarchy of God 
Raised impious war in Heaven and battle proud, 
With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power 
Hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky, 45 

With hideous ruin and combustion, down 
To bottomless perdition ; there to dwell 
In adamantine chains and penal fire. 
Who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms. 

Nine times the space that measures day and night 50 

To mortal men, he with his horrid crew 
Lay vanquished, rolling in the fiery gulf, 
Confounded though immortal. But his doom 
Reserved him to more wrath ; for now the thought 
Both of lost happiness and lasting pain 55 

Torments him ; round he throAvs his baleful eyes, 
That witnessed huge affliction and dismay, 
Mixed with obdurate pride and steadfast hate. 
At once, as far as Angels ken, he views 
The dismal situation waste and wild : 60 

A dungeon horrible, on all sides round, 



PARADISE LOST. 19 

As one great furnace flamed ; yet from those flames 

No light, but rather darkness visible 

Served only to discover sights of woe, 

Eegions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace 65 

And rest can never dwell, hope never comes 

That comes to all ; but torture without end 

Still urges, and a fiery deluge, fed 

With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed. 

Such place Eternal Justice had prepared 70 

For those rebellious ; here their prison ordained 

In utter darkness, and their portion set. 

As far removed from God and light of Heaven 

As from the center thrice to the utmost pole. 

Oh how unlike the place from whence they fell ! 75 

There the companions of his fall, o'erwhelmed 

With floods and whirlwinds of tempestuous fire, 

He soon discerns ; and, weltering by his side, 

One next himself in power, and next in crime. 

Long after known in Palestine, and named 80 

Beelzebub. To whom the Arch-Enemy, 

And thence in Heaven called Satan, with bold words 

Breaking the horrid silence, thus began : 

" If thou beest he — but Oh how fallen ! how changed 
From him, who in the happy realms of light, 85 

Clothed with transcendent brightness, didst outshine 
Myriads, though bright ! if he whom mutual league, 
United thoughts and counsels, equal hope 
And hazard in the glorious enterprise. 

Joined with me once, now misery hath joined 90 

In equal ruin : into what pit thou seest 
From what height fallen, so much the stronger proved 
He with his thunder : and till then who knew 
The force of those dire arms ? Yet not for those, 
Nor what the potent victor in his rage 95 

Can else inflict, do I repent, or change, 



20 JOHN MILTON. 

Though changed in outward hister, that fixed mind, 

And high disdain from sense of injured merit, 

That with the Mightiest raised me to contend, 

And to the fierce contention brought along loO 

Innumerable force of Spirits armed, 

That durst dislike his reign, and, me preferring. 

His utmost power with adverse poAver opposed 

In dubious battle on the plains of Heaven, 

And shook his throne. What though the field be lost ? 105 

All is not lost: the unconquerable will, 

And study of revenge, immortal hate. 

And courage never to submit or yield : 

And what is else not to be overcome ? 

That glory never shall his wrath or might lio 

Extort from me. To bow and sue for grace 

With suppliant knee, and deify his power 

Who, from the terror of this arm, so late 

Doubted his empire — that were Ioav indeed ; 

That were an ignominy and shame beneath 115 

This downfall ; since by fate the strength of gods 

And this empyreal substance cannot fail ; 

Since, through experience of this great event, 

In arms not worse, in foresight much advanced. 

We may with more successful hope resolve 120 

To wage by force or guile eternal war. 

Irreconcilable to our grand foe. 

Who now triumphs, and in the excess of joy 

Sole reigning holds the tyranny of Heaven.'^ 

So spake the apostate Angel, though in pain, 125 

Vaunting aloud, but racked with deep despair ; 
And him thus answered soon his bold compeer : 

" Prince, Chief of many throned powers. 
That led the embattled Seraphim to war 
Under thy conduct, and, in dreadful deeds 130 

Fearless, endangered Heaven's perpetual King, 



PARADISE LOST. 21 

And put to proof his high supremacy, 

Whether upheld by strength, or chance, or fate ! 

Too well I see and rue the dire event 

That with sad overthrow and foul defeat 135 

Hath lost us Heaven, and all this mighty host 

In horrible destruction laid thus low, 

As far as gods and Heavenly essences 

Can perish : for the mind and spirit remain 

Invincible, and vigor soon returns, 140 

Though all our glory extinct, and happy state 

Here swallowed up in endless misery. 

But what if he our conqueror (whom I now 

Of force believe almighty, since no less 

Than such could have o'erpowered such force as ours) 145 

Have left us this our spirit and strength entire, 

Strongly to suffer and support our pains. 

That we may so suffice his vengeful ire ; 

Or do him mightier service, as his thralls 

By right of war, whate'er his business be, 150 

Here in the heart of Hell to work in fire. 

Or do his errands in the gloomy deep ? 

What can it then avail, though yet we feel 

Strength undiminished, or eternal being 

To undergo eternal punishment ? " 155 

Whereto with speedy words th' Arch-Fiend replied : 
" Fallen Cherub, to be weak is miserable. 
Doing or suffering : but of this be sure. 
To do aught good never will be our task, 
But ever to do ill our sole delight, 160 

As being the contrary to his high will 
Whom we resist. If then his providence 
Out of our evil seek to bring forth good. 
Our labor must be to pervert that end. 

And out of good still to find means of evil ; 165 

Which oft times may succeed, so as perhaps 



22 JOHN MILTON. 

Shall grieve him, if I fail not, and disturb 

His inmost counsels from their destined aim. 

But see ! the angry victor hath recalled 

His ministers of vengeance and pursuit 170 

Back to the gates of Heaven ; the sulphurous hail, 

Shot after us in storm, o'erblown hath laid 

The fiery surge that from the precipice 

Of Heaven received us falling; and the thunder. 

Winged with red lightning and impetuous rage, 175 

Perhaps hath spent his shafts, and ceases now 

To bellow through the vast and boundless deep. 

Let us not slip the occasion, whether scorn 

Or satiate fury yield it from our foe. 

Seest thou yon dreary plain, forlorn and wild, 180 

The seat of desolation, void of light. 

Save what the glimmering of these livid flames 

Casts pale and dreadful ? Thither let us tend 

From off the tossing of these fiery waves ; 

There rest, if any rest can harbor there ; 185 

And, re-assembling our afflicted powers, 

Consult how we may henceforth most offend 

Our enemy, our own loss how repair, 

How overcome this dire calamity. 

What reinforcement we may gain from hope, 190 

If not what resolution from despair." 

Thus Satan, talking to his nearest mate, 
With head uplift above the wave, and eyes 
That sparkling blazed ; his other parts besides. 
Prone on the flood, extended long and large, 195 

Lay floating many a rood, in bulk as huge 
As whom the fables name of monstrous size, 
Titanian, or Earth-born, that warred on Jove, 
Briareos or Typhon, whom the den 

By ancient Tarsus held, or that sea-beast 200 

Leviathan, which God of all his works 



PARADISE LOST. 23 

Created hugest that swim the ocean-stream. 

Him, haply, slumbering on the Norway foam, 

The pilot of some small night-foundered skiff 

Deeming some island, oft, as seamen tell, 205 

With fixed anchor in his scaly rind, 

Moors by his side under the lee, while night 

Invests the sea, and wished morn delays. 

So stretched out huge in length the Arch-Fiend lay, 

Chained on the burning lake ; nor ever thence 210 

Had risen or heaved his head, but that the will 

And high permission of all-ruling Heaven 

Left him at large to his own dark designs, 

That with reiterated crimes he might 

Heap on himself damnation, while he sought 215 

Evil to others, and enraged might see 

How all his malice served but to bring forth 

Infinite goodness, grace and mercy shewn 

On Man by him seduced, but on himself 

Treble confusion, wrath and vengeance poured. 220 

Forthwith upright he rears from off the pool 
His mighty stature ; on each hand the flames 
Driven backward slope their pointing spires, and, rolled 
In billows, leave i' the midst a horrid vale. 
Then with expanded wings he steers his flight 225 

Aloft, incumbent on the dusky air. 
That felt unusual weight ; till on dry land 
He lights — if it were land that ever burned 
With solid, as the lake with liquid fire. 
And such appeared in hue, as when the force 230 

Of subterranean wind transports a hill 
Torn from Pelorus, or the shattered side 
Of thundering ^tna, whose combustible 
And fueled entrails thence conceiving fire, 
Sublimed with mineral fury, aid the winds, 235 

And leave a singed bottom all involved 



24 JOHN MILTON. 

With stencil and smoke : such resting found the sole 

Of unblest feet. Him followed his next mate, 

Both glorying to have 'sca^Ded the Stygian flood 

As gods, and by their own recovered strength, 240 

Kot by the sufferance of supernal power. 

" Is this the region, this the soil, the clime," 
Said then the lost Archangel, " this the seat 
That we must change for Heaven ? this mournful gloom 
For that celestial light ? Be it so, since he 245 

Who now is sovran can dispose and bid 
What shall be right : farthest from him is best. 
Whom reason hath equaled, force hath made supreme 
Above his equals. Farewell, happy fields. 
Where joy forever dwells ! Hail, horrors ! hail, 250 

Infernal world ! and thou, profoundest Hell, 
Eeceive thy new possessor, one who brings 
A mind not to be changed by place or time. 
The mind is its own place, and in itself 
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven. 255 

What matter where, if I be still the same. 
And what I should be, all but less than he 
Whom thunder hath made greater ? Here at least 
We shall be free ; the Almighty hath not built 
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence : 260 

Here we may reign secure ; and in my choice 
To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell : 
Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven. 
But wherefore let we then our faithful friends, 
The associates and co-partners of our loss, 265 

Lie thus astonished on the oblivious pool. 
And call them not to share with us their part 
In this unhappy mansion, or once more 
With rallied arms to try what may be yet 
Kegained in Heaven, or what more lost in Hell ? " 270 

So Satan spake ; and him Beelzebub 



PARADISE LOST. 25 

Thus answered : " Leader of those armies bright 

Which but the Omnipotent none could have foiled, 

If once they hear that voice, their liveliest pledge 

Of hope in fears and dangers — heard so oft 275 

In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge 

Of battle when it raged, in all assaults 

Their surest signal — they will soon resume 

New courage and revive, though now they lie 

Groveling and prostrate on yon lake of fire, 280 

As we erewhile, astounded and amazed — 

No wonder, fallen such a pernicious height ! " 

He scarce had ceased when the superior Fiend 
Was moving toward the shore ; his ponderous shield. 
Ethereal temper, massy, large, and round, 285 

Behind him cast. The broad circumference 
Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb 
Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views 
At evening from the top of Fesole, 

Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands, 290 

Rivers, or mountains, in her spotty globe. 
His spear — to equal which the tallest pine 
Hewn on Norwegian hills to be the mast 
Of some great ammiral, were but a wand — 
He walked with, to support uneasy steps 295 

Over the burning marie, not like those steps 
On Heaven's azure ; and the torrid clime 
Smote on him sore besides, vaulted with fire. 
Nathless he so endured, till on the beach 
Of that inflamed sea he stood, and called 300 

His legions. Angel forms, who lay entranced. 
Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks 
In Vallombrosa, where the Etrurian shades 
High over-arched embower ; or scattered sedge 
Afloat, when with fierce winds Orion armed 305 

Hath vexed the Eed-Sea coast, whose waves o'erthrew 



26 JOHN MILTON. 

Biisiris and his Memphian chivalry, 

While with ]Derfidious hatred they pursued 

The sojourners of Goshen, who beheld 

From the safe shore their floating carcases 310 

And broken chariot-wheels : so thick bestrown, 

Abject and lost, lay these, covering the flood. 

Under amazement of their hideous change. 

He called so loud that all the hollow deep 

Of Hell resounded : " Princes, Potentates, 315 

Warriors, the flower of Heaven, once yours, now lost, 

If such astonishment as this can seize 

Eternal Spirits : or have ye chosen this place 

After the toil of battle to repose 

Your wearied virtue, for the ease you find 320 

To slumber here, as in the vales of Heaven ? 

Or in this abject posture have ye sworn 

To adore the conqueror, who now beholds 

Cherub and Seraph rolling in the flood 

With scattered arms and ensigns, till anon 325 

His swift pursuers from Heaven-gates discern 

The advantage, and descending tread us down 

Thus drooping, or with linked thunderbolts 

Transfix us to the bottom of this gulf ? 

Awake, arise, or be for ever fallen ! " 330 

They heard, and were abashed, and up they sprung 
Upon the wing, as when men wont to watch 
On duty, sleeping found by whom they dread, 
Rouse and bestir themselves ere well awake. 
Nor did they not perceive the evil plight 335 

In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel ; 
Yet to their General's voice they soon obeyed 
Innumerable. As when the potent rod 
Of Amram's son, in Egypt's evil day. 

Waved round the coast, up called a pitchy cloud 340 

Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind, 



PARADISE LOST. 27 

That o'er the realm of impious Pharaoh hung 
Like night, and darkened all the land of Nile : 
So numberless were those bad Angels seen 
Hovering on wing under the cope of Hell, 345 

'Twixt upper, nether, and surrounding fires ; 
Till, as a signal given, the uplifted spear 
Of their great Sultan waving to direct 
Their course, in even balance down they light 
On the firm brimstone, and fill all the plain : 350 

A multitude, like which the populous North 
Poured never from her frozen loins, to pass 
Ehene or the Danaw, when her barbarous sons 
Came like a deluge on the South, and spread 
Beneath Gibraltar to the Libyan "sands. 355 

Forthwith, from every squadron and each band, 
The heads and leaders thither haste where stood 
Their great Commander ; godlike shapes, and forms 
Excelling human, princely dignities. 

And powers that erst in Heaven sat on thrones ; 360 

Though of their names in Heavenly records now 
Be no memorial, blotted out and rased 
By their rebellion from the Books of Life. 
Nor had they yet among the sons of Eve 
Got them new names, till, wandering o'er the Earth, 365 
Through God's high sufferance for the trial of Man, 
By falsities and lies the greatest part 
Of Mankind they corrupted to forsake 
God their Creator, and the invisible 

Glory of him that made them to transform 370 

Oft to the image of a brute, adorned 
With gay religions full of pomp and gold. 
And devils to adore for deities. 
Then were they known to men by various names. 
And various idols through the heathen world. 375 

Say, Muse, their names then known, who first, who last. 



28 JOHN MILTON. 

Koused from the slumber on that fiery couch, 

At their great Emperor's call, as next in worth 

Came singly where he stood on the bare strand. 

While the promiscuous crowd stood yet aloof. 380 

The chief were those who, from the pit of Hell 
Eoaming to seek their prey on Earth, durst fix 
Their seats long after next the seat of God, 
Their altars by his altar, gods adored 

Among the nations round, and durst abide 385 

Jehovah thundering out of Sion, throned 
Between the Cherubim ; yea, often placed 
Within his sanctuary itself their shrines, 
Abominations ; and with cursed things 

His holy rites and solemn feasts profaned, 390 

And with their darkness durst affront his light. 
First, Moloch, horrid king, besmeared with blood 
Of human sacrifice, and parents' tears. 
Though, for the noise of drums and timbrels loud. 
Their children's cries unheard, that passed through fire 395 
To his grim idol. Him the Ammonite 
Worshiped in Rabba and her watery plain. 
In Argob and in Basan, to the stream 
Of utmost Arnon. Nor content with such 
Audacious neighborhood, the wisest heart 400 

Of Solomon he led by fraud to build 
His temple right against the temple of God 
On that opprobrious hill, and made his grove 
The pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence 
And black Gehenna called, the type of Hell. 405 

Next Chemos, the obscene dread of Moab's sons, 
From Aroer to Nebo, and the wild 
Of southmost Abarim ; in Hesebon 
And Horonaim, Seon's realm, beyond 

The flowery dale of Sibma clad with vines, 410 

And Eleale to the Asphaltic pool. 



PARADISE LOST. 29 

Peor his other name, when he enticed 

Israel in Sittim, on their march from Kile, 

To do him wanton rites, which cost them woe. 

Yet thence his lustful orgies he enlarged 415 

Even to that hill of scandal, by the grove 

Of Moloch homicide, lust hard by hate ; 

Till good Josiah drove them thence to Hell. 

With these came they who, from the bordering flood 

Of old Euphrates to the brook that parts 420 

Egypt from Syrian ground, had general names 

Of Baalim and Ashtaroth — those male. 

These feminine. For Spirits, when they please, 

Can either sex assume, or both ; so soft 

And uncompounded is their essence pure, 425 

Not tied or manacled with joint or limb. 

Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones, 

Like cumbrous flesh ; but, in what shape they choose, 

Dilated or condensed, bright or obscure, 

Can execute their airy purposes, 430 

And works of love or enmity fulfill. 

For those the race of Israel oft forsook 

Their living Strength, and unfrequented left 

His righteous altar, bowing lowly down 

To bestial gods; for which their heads as low 435 

Bowed down in battle, sunk before the spear 

Of despicable foes. With these in troop 

Came Astoreth, whom the Phoenicians called 

Astarte, Queen of Heaven, with crescent horns ; 

To whose bright image nightly by the moon 440 

Sidonian virgins paid their vows and songs ; 

In Sion also not unsung, where stood 

Her temple on the offensive mountain, built 

By that uxorious king whose heart, though large, 

Beguiled by fair idolatresses, fell 445 

To idols foul. Thammuz came next behind, 



30 JOHN MILTON. 

Whose annual wound in Lebanon allured 

The Syrian damsels to lament his fate 

In amorous ditties all a summer's day, 

While smooth Adonis from his native rock 450 

Ran purple to the sea, supposed with blood 

Of Thammuz yearly wounded : the love-tale 

Infected Sion's daughters with like heat. 

Whose wanton passions in the sacred porch 

Ezekiel saw, when, by the vision led, 455 

His eye surveyed the dark idolatries 

Of alienated Judah. Next came one 

Who mourned in earnest, when the captive ark 

Maimed his brute image, head and hands lopt off 

In his own temple, on the grunsel-edge, 460 

Where he fell flat, and shamed his worshipers : 

Dagon his name, sea-monster, upward man 

And downward fish ; yet had his temple high 

Reared in Azotus, dreaded through the coast 

Of Palestine, in Gath and Ascalon, 465 

And Accaron and Gaza's frontier bounds. 

Him followed Rimmon, whose delightful seat 

Was fair Damascus, on the fertile banks 

Of Abbana and Pharphar, lucid streams. 

He also against the house of God was bold : 470 

A leper once he lost and gained a king, 

Ahaz, his sottish conqueror, whom he drew 

God's altar to disparage and displace 

For one of Syrian mode, whereon to burn 

His odious offerings, and adore the gods 475 

Whom he had vanquished. After these appeared 

A crew who, under names of old renown, 

Osiris, Isis, Orus, and their train. 

With monstrous shapes and sorceries abused 

Fanatic Egypt and her j^riests, to seek 480 

Their wandering gods disguised in brutish forms 



PARADISE LOST. 31 

Rather than human. Nor did Israel 'scape 

The infection, when their borrowed gold composed 

The calf in Oreb ; and the rebel king 

Doubled that sin in Bethel and in Dan, 485 

Likening his Maker to the grazed ox — 

Jehovah, who, in one night, when he passed 

From Egypt marching, equaled with one stroke 

Both her first-born and all her bleating gods. 

Belial came last, than whom a Spirit more lewd 490 

Fell not from Heaven, or more gross to love 

Vice for itself. To him no temple stood 

Or altar smoked ; yet who more oft than he 

In temples and at altars, when the priest 

Turns atheist, as did Eli's sons, who filled 495 

With lust and violence the house of God ? 

In courts and palaces he also reigns. 

And in luxurious cities, where the noise 

Of riot ascends above their loftiest towers. 

And injury and outrage ; and when night 500 

Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons 

Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine. 

Witness the streets of Sodom, and that night 

In Gibeah, when the hospitable door 

Exposed a matron, to avoid worse rape. 505 

These were the prime in order and in might ; 
The rest were long to tell, though far renowned. 
The Ionian gods — of Javan's issue held 
Gods, yet confessed later than Heaven and Earth, 
Their boasted parents : Titan, Heaven's first-born, 510 

With his enormous brood, and birthright seized 
By younger Saturn ; he from mightier Jove, 
His own and Rhea's son, like measure found ; 
So Jove usurping reigned. These, first in Crete 
And Ida known, thence on the snowy top 515 

Of cold Olympus ruled the middle air, 



32 JOHN MILTON. 

Their highest Heaven ; or on the Delphian cliff, 

Or in Doclona, and through all the bounds 

Of Doric land ; or who with Saturn old 

Fled over Adria to the Hesperian fields, 520 

And o'er the Celtic roamed the utmost isles. 

All these and more came flocking ; but with looks 
Downcast and damp, yet such wherein appeared 
Obscure some glimpse of joy, to have found their Chief 
Not in despair, to have found themselves not lost 525 

In loss itself ; which on his countenance cast 
Like doubtful hue. But he, his wonted pride 
Soon recollecting, with high words, that bore 
Semblance of worth, not substance, gently raised 
Their fainting courage, and dispelled their fears : 530 

Then straight commands that, at the warlike sound 
Of trumpets loud and clarions, be upreared 
His mighty standard. That proud honor claimed 
Azazel as his right, a Cherub tall : 

Who forthwith from the glittering staff unfurled 535 

The imperial ensign, which, full high advanced. 
Shone like a meteor streaming to the wind, 
With gems and golden luster rich emblazed, 
Seraphic arms and trophies ; all the while 
Sonorous metal blowing martial sounds : 540 

At which the universal host up sent 
A shout that tore Hell's concave, and beyond 
Frighted the reign of Chaos and old Night. 
All in a moment through the gloom were seen 
Ten thousand banners rise into the air, 545 

With orient colors waving ; with them rose 
A forest huge of spears ; and thronging helms 
Appeared, and serried shields in thick array 
Of depth immeasurable. Anon they move 
In perfect phalanx, to the Dorian mood 550 

Of flutes and soft recorders ; such as raised 



PAKADISE LOST. 33 

To height of noblest temper heroes old 

Arming to battle, and instead of rage 

Deliberate valor breathed, firm and unmoved 

With dread of death to flight or foul retreat ; 555 

Nor wanting power to mitigate and swage, 

With solemn touches, troubled thoughts, and chase 

Anguish and doubt and fear and sorrow and pain 

From mortal or immortal minds. Thus they. 

Breathing united force with fixed thought, 560 

Moved on in silence to soft pipes that charmed 

Their painful steps o'er the burnt soil ; and now 

Advanced in view they stand, a horrid front 

Of dreadful length and dazzling arms, in guise 

Of warriors old, with ordered spear and shield, 565 

Awaiting what command their mighty Chief 

Had to impose. He through the armed files 

Darts his experienced eye, and soon traverse 

The whole battalion views — their order due. 

Their visages and stature as of gods ; 570 

Their number last he sums. And now his heart 

Distends with pride, and hardening in his strength 

Glories ; for never, since created Man, 

Met such embodied force as, named with these, 

Could merit more than that small infantry 575 

Warred on by cranes : though all the giant brood 

Of Phlegra with the heroic race were joined 

That fought at Thebes and Ilium, on each side 

Mixed with auxiliar gods ; and what resounds 

In fable or romance of Uther's son, 580 

Begirt with British and Armoric knights ; 

And all who since, baptized or infidel, 

Jousted in Asi)ramont, or Montalban, 

Damasco, or Marocco, or Trebisond ; 

Or whom Biserta sent from Af ric shore 585 

When Charlemain with all his peerage fell 



34 JOHN MILTON. 

By Fontarabbia. Thus far these beyond 

Compare of mortal prowess, yet observed 

Their dread Commander. He, above the rest 

In shape and gesture proudly eminent, 590 

Stood like a tower ; his form had yet not lost 

All her original brightness, nor appeared 

Less than Archangel ruined, and the excess 

Of glory obscured : as when the sun new-risen 

Looks through the horizontal misty air , 595 

Shorn of his beams, or from behind the moon, 

In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds 

On half the nations, and with fear of change 

Perplexes nionarchs. Darkened so, yet shone 

Above them all the Archangel ; but his face 600 

Deep scars of thunder had intrenched, and care 

Sat on his faded cheek, but under brows 

Of dauntless courage, and considerate pride 

Waiting revenge. Cruel his eye, but cast 

Signs of remorse and passion, to behold 605 

The fellows of his crime, the followers rather 

(Far other once beheld in bliss), condemned 

For ever now to have their lot in pain ; 

Millions of Spirits for his fault amerced 

Of Heaven, and from eternal splendors flung 610 

For his revolt ; yet faithful how they stood. 

Their glory withered : as, when Heaven's fire 

Hath scathed the forest oaks or mountain pines. 

With singed top their stately growth, though bare. 

Stands on the blasted heath. He now prepared 615 

To speak ; whereat their doubled ranks they bend 

From wing to wing, and half inclose him round 

With all his peers : attention held them mute. 

Thrice he assayed, and thrice, in spite of scorn, 

Tears, such as Angels weep, burst forth : at last 620 

Words interwove with sighs found out their way : 



PARADISE LOST. 35 

" myriads of immortal Spirits ! Powers 
Matchless, but with the Almighty ! — and that strife 
Was not inglorious, though the event was dire, 
As this place testifies, and this dire change, 625 

Hateful to utter. But what power of mind. 
Foreseeing or presaging, from the depth 
Of knowledge past or present, could have feared 
How such united force of gods, how such 
As stood like these, could ever know repulse ? 630 

For who can yet believe, though after loss. 
That all these puissant legions, whose exile 
Hath emptied Heaven, shall fail to re-ascend. 
Self-raised, and re-possess their native seat ? 
For me, be witness all the host of Heaven, 635 

If counsels different, or danger shunned 
By me, have lost our hopes. But he who reigns 
Monarch in Heaven, till then as one secure 
Sat on his throne, upheld by old repute, 
Consent or custom, and his regal state 640 

Put forth at full, but still his strength concealed. 
Which tempted our attempt, and Avrought our fall. 
Henceforth his might we know, and know our own, 
So as not either to provoke, or dread 

New war, provoked ; our better part remains 645 

To work in close design, by fraud or guile, 
What force effected not ; that he no less 
At length from us may find, who overcomes 
By force hath overcome but half his foe. 
Space may produce new worlds ; whereof so rife 650 

There went a fame in Heaven that he ere long 
Intended to create, and therein plant 
A generation whom his choice regard 
Should favor equal to the Sons of Heaven. 
Thither, if but to pry, shall be perhaps 655 

Our first eruption, thither or elsewhere ; 



36 JOHN MILTON. 

For this infernal pit shall never hold 

Celestial Spirits in bondage, nor the Abyss 

Long under darkness cover. But these thoughts 

Full counsel must mature. Peace is despaired, 660 

For who can think submission ? War, then, war 

Open or understood, must be resolved." 

He spake ; and, to confirm his words, out flew 
Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs 
Of mighty Cherubim ; the sudden blaze 665 

Far round illumined Hell. Highly they raged 
Against the Highest, and fierce with grasped arms 
Clashed on their sounding shields the din of war, 
Hurling defiance toward the vault of Heaven. 

There stood a hill not far, whose grisly top 670 

\ Belched fire and rolling smoke ; the rest entire 

\ Shone with a glossy scurf — undoubted sign 
>^ That in his womb was hid metallic ore. 

The work of sulphur. Thither, winged with speed, 
A numerous brigad hastened : as when bands 675 

Of pioneers, with spade and pickax armed. 
Forerun the royal camp, to trench a field, 
^ Or cast a rampart. Mammon led them on, 
-^Mammon, the least erected Spirit that fell 679 

^ "'om Heaven, for ev'n in Heaven his looks and thoughts 

-^ always downward bent, admiring more 
inan ^^^&Y of Heaven's pavement, trodden gold, 
in visi 1^ divine or holy else enjoyed 
Men also, I ^^.^^_ ^^ ^.^^ ^^^^ 

EansackeJ^^^^ by his suggestion taught, 685 

yl the center, and with impious hands 
For trea|^ ^^^^^i^ ^f ^l^g- j, j^other Earth 

^^^ . Jjures better hid. Soon had his crew 

^^mto the hill a spacious wound, 
That rid 
^ Jged out ribs of gold. Let none admire 

,/3hes grow in Hell ; that soil may best 



690 



/ 



_j 



PARADISE LOST. 37 

Deserve the precious bane. And here let those 

Who boast in mortal things, and wondering tell 

Of Babel, and the works of Memphian kings. 

Learn how their greatest monuments of fame, 695 

And strength, and art are easily outdone 

By Spirits reprobate, and in an hour 

What in an age they, with incessant toil 

And hands innumerable, scarce perform. 

Nigh on the plain, in many cells prepared, 700 

That underneath had veins of liquid fire 

Sluiced from the lake, a second multitude 

With wondrous art founded the massy ore. 

Severing each kind, and scummed the bullion-dross. 

A third as soon had formed within the ground 705 

A various mold, and from the boiling cells 

By strange conveyance filled each hollow nook : 

As in an organ, from one blast of wind. 

To many a row of pipes the sound-board breathes. 

Anon out of the earth a fabric huge 710 

Rose like an exhalation, with the sound 

Of dulcet symphonies and voices sweet. 

Built like a temple, where pilasters round 

Were set, and Doric pillars overlaid 

With golden architrave ; nor did there want 715 

Cornice or frieze, with bossy sculptures graven ; 

The roof was fretted gold. Not Babylon, 

Nor great Alcairo, such magnificence 

Equaled in all their glories, to enshrine 

Belus or Serapis their gods, or seat 720 

Their kings, when Egypt with Assyria strove 

In wealth and luxury. The ascending pile 

Stood fixed her stately height, and straight the doors. 

Opening their brazen folds, discover, wide 

Within, her ample spaces o'er the smooth 725 

And level pavement : from the arched roof, 



38 JOHN MILTON. 

Pendent by subtle magic, many a row 

Of starry lamps and blazing cressets, fed 

With naphtha and asphaltus, yielded light 

As from a sky. The hasty multitude 730 

Admiring entered, and the work some praise, 

And some the architect : his hand was known 

In Heaven by many a towered structure high, ■ 

Where scepter'd Angels held their residence. 

And sat as princes, whom the supreme King 735 

Exalted to such power, and gave to rule. 

Each in his Hierarchy, the Orders bright. 

Nor was his name unheard or unadored 

In ancient Greece ; and in Ausonian land 

Men called him Mulciber ; and how he fell 740 

From Heaven they fabled, thrown by angry Jove 

Sheer o'er the crystal battlements : from morn 

To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve, — 

A summer's day ; and with the setting sun 

Dropt from the zenith like a falling star, 745 

On Lemnos, the ^gsean isle. Thus they relate. 

Erring 5 for he with this rebellious rout 

Fell long before ; nor aught availed him now 

To have built in Heaven high towers ; nor did he 'scape 

By all his engines, but was headlong sent 750 

With his industrious crew to build in Hell. 

Meanwhile the winged Haralds, by command 
Of sovran power, with awful ceremony 
And trumpet's sound, throughout the host proclaim 
A solemn council forthwith to be held 755 

At Pandemonium, the high capital 
Of Satan and his peers. Their summons called 
From every band and squared regiment 
By place or choice the worthiest ; they anon 
With hundreds and with thousands trooping came 760 

Attended. All access was thronged, the gates 
And porches wide, but chief the spacious hall 



PARADISE LOST. 39 

(Tliough. like a covered field, Avhere champions bold 

Wont ride in armed, and at the Soldan's chair 

Defied the best of Panim chivalry 765 

To mortal combat, or career with lance) 

Thick swarmed, both on the ground and in the air, 

Brushed with the hiss of rustling wings. As bees 

In spring-time, when the Sun with Taurus rides. 

Pour forth their populous youth about the hive 770 

In clusters ; they among fresh dews and flowers 

Fly to and fro, or on the smoothed plank, 

The suburb of their straw-built citadel, 

Kew rubbed with balm, expatiate and confer 

Their state-affairs. So thick the airy crowd 775 

Swarmed and were straitened; till, the signal given, 

Behold a wonder ! they but now who seemed 

In bigness to surpass Earth's giant sons. 

Now less than smallest dwarfs, in narrow room 

Throng numberless, like that pygmean race 780 

Beyond the Indian mount; or faery elves, 

Whose midnight revels, by a forest-side 

Or fountain, some belated peasant sees. 

Or dreams he sees, while overhead the moon 

Sits arbitress, and nearer to the Earth 785 

Wheels her pale course ; they, on their mirth and dance 

Intent, with jocund music charm his ear; 

At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds. 

Thus incorporeal Spirits to smallest forms 

Eeduced their shapes immense, and were at large, 790 

Though without number still, amidst the hall 

Of that infernal court. But far within. 

And in their own dimensions like themselves, 

The great Seraphic Lords and Cherubim 

In close recess and secret conclave sat, 795 

A thousand demi-gods on golden seats, 

Erequent and full. After short silence then. 

And summons read, the great consult began. 



40 JOHN MILTONc 



BOOK II. 



High on a throne of royal state, which far 

Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Ind, 

Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand 

Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold, 

Satan exalted sat, by merit raised 5 

To that bad eminence ; and, from despair 

Thus high uplifted beyond hope, asj)ires 

Beyond thus high, insatiate to pursue 

Vain war with Heaven ; and, by success untaught, 

His proud imaginations thus displayed : 10 

" Powers and Dominions, Deities of Heaven ! 
For since no deep within her gulf can hold 
Immortal vigor, though oppressed and fallen, 
I give not Heaven for lost: from this descent 
Celestial Virtues rising will appear 15 

More glorious and more dread than from no fall. 
And trust themselves to fear no second fate. 
Me, though just right and the fixed laws of Heaven 
Did first create your leader, next, free choice. 
With what besides, in counsel or in fight, 20 

Hath been achieved of merit, yet this loss. 
Thus far at least recovered, hath much more 
Established in a safe unenvied throne. 
Yielded with full consent. The happier state 
In Heaven, which follows dignity, might draw 25 

Envy from each inferior ,- but who here 
Will envy whom the highest place exposes 
Foremost to stand against the Thunderer's aim 
Your bulwark, and condemns to greatest share 
Of endless pain ? Where there is then no good 30 

For which to strive, no strife can grow up there 



PARADISE LOST. 41 

From faction ; for none sure will claim in Hell 

Precedence, none whose portion is so small 

Of present pain that with ambitious mind 

Will covet more. With this advantage then 35 

To union, and firm faith, and firm accord. 

More than can be in Heaven, we now return 

To claim our just inheritance of old, 

Surer to prosper than prosperity 

Could have assured us ; and by what best way, 40 

Whether of open war or covert guile. 

We now debate ; who can advise may speak." 

He ceased ; and next him Moloch, scepter'd king. 
Stood up, the strongest and the fiercest Spirit 
That fought in Heaven, noAV fiercer by despair. 45 

His trust was with the Eternal to be deemed 
Equal in strength, and rather than be less 
Cared not to be at all ; with that care lost 
Went all his fear : of God, or Hell, or worse. 
He recked not, and these words thereafter spake : 50 

" My sentence is for open war : of wiles. 
More unexpert, I boast not : them let those 
Contrive who need, or when they need, not now. 
For while they sit contriving, shall the rest. 
Millions that stand in arms, and longing wait 55 

The signal to ascend, sit lingering here. 
Heaven's fugitives, and for their dwelling place 
Accept this dark opprobrious den of shame. 
The prison of his tyranny who reigns 

By our delay ? No J let us rather choose, 60 

Armed with Hell-flames and fury, all at once 
O'er Heaven's high towers to force resistless way, 
Turning our tortures into horrid arms 
Against the Torturer ; when to meet the noise 
Of his almighty engine he shall hear 65 

Infernal thunder, and for lightning see 



42 JOHN MILTON. 

Black fire and horror shot with equal rage 

Among his Angels, and his throne itself 

Mixed with Tartarean sulphur and strange fire, 

His own invented torments. But perhaps 70 

The way seems difficult and steep to scale 

With upright wing against a higher foe. 

Let such bethink them, if the sleepy drench 

Of that forgetful lake benumb not still, 

That in our proper motion we ascend 75 

Up to our native seat ; descent and fall 

To us is adverse. Who but felt of late. 

When the fierce foe hung on our broken rear 

Insulting, and pursued us through the deep, 

With what compulsion and laborious flight 80 

We sunk thus low ? The ascent is easy then ; 

The event is feared : should we again provoke 

Our stronger, some worse way his wrath may find 

To our destruction — if there be in Hell 

Fear to be worse destroyed ! What can be worse 85 

Than to dwell here, driven out from bliss, condemned 

In this abhorred deep to utter woe ; 

Where pain of unextinguishable fire 

Must exercise us without hope of end, 

The vassals of his anger, when the scourge 90 

Inexorable and the torturing hour 

Call us to penance ? More destroyed than thus. 

We should be quite abolished, and expire. 

What fear we then ? what doubt we to incense 

His utmost ire ? which, to the height enraged, 95 

Will either quite consume us, and reduce 

To nothing this essential — happier far 

Than miserable to have eternal being ! — 

Or if our substance be indeed divine, 

And cannot cease to be, we are at worst 100 

On this side nothing ; and by proof we feel 



PARADISE LOST. 43 

Our power sufficient to disturb his Heaven, 

And with perpetual inroads to alarm, 

Though inaccessible, his fatal throne : 

Which, if not victory, is yet revenge." 105 

He ended, frowning, and his look denounced 
Desperate revenge, and battle dangerous 
To less than gods. On the other side up rose 
Belial, in act more graceful and humane ; 
A fairer person lost not Heaven ; he seemed iio 

For dignity composed, and high exploit. 
But all was false and hollow ; though his tongue 
Dropt manna, and could make the worse appear 
The better reason, to perplex and dash 

Maturest counsels : for his thoughts were low ; 115 

To vice industrious, but to nobler deeds 
Timorous and slothful : yet he pleased the ear. 
And with persuasive accent thus began : 

" I should be much for open war, Peers, 
As not behind in hate, if what was urged 120 

Main reason to persuade immediate war 
Did not dissuade me most, and seem to cast 
Ominous conjecture on the whole success ; 
When he who most excels in fact of arms, 
In what he counsels and in what excels 125 

Mistrustful, grounds his courage on despair 
And utter dissolution, as the scope 
Of all his aim, after some dire revenge. 
First, what revenge ? The towers of Heaven are filled 
With armed watch, that render all access 130 

Impregnable ; oft on the bordering deep 
Encamp their legions, or with obscure wing 
Scout far and wide into the realm of Night, 
Scorning surprise. Or could we break our way 
By force, and at our heels all Hell should rise 135 

With blackest insurrection, to confound 



44 JOHN MILTON. 

Heaven's purest light, yet our ^ncat enemy 

All incorruptible would on his throne 

Sit unpollutcul, and the ethereal mold 

In(;apahl(; oi' stain would soon expel 140 

Her mischief, and purge off the baser fire. 

Victorious. "I'lnis r(;pulsed, our final hoy)e 

Is fiat desi)air: w(; must exasperate 

The almighty victor to spend all his rage, 

And that must end us, that must be our cure — 145 

To be no more. Sad cine! foi- who woidd lose, 

Though full of pain, this intellc.ctiial being, 

Thos(! thoughts tha,t waiuhu* through (iternity, 

To jx'j'isli ratlu'T, sw;i,lh)W(;rl uj) and lost 

In the; wide wond) of un(;rcated Niglit, ino 

Devoid of sense and iriotjon ? And who knows, 

Let this ])(! good, wiieihfr our ;i,ngry foe 

(Jan give i1,, oi- will ev(!r ? How Ik; can 

Is doubtful ; thii.t he never will is sure. 

Will h(}, so wise, let loose at once his ire, 155 

Belike through impotence, or unaware, 

To give his enemies their wish, and end 

Them in his angcu-, whom his anger saves 

To punish endh^ss ? ' VVluu-efore cease we, then ?' 

Say they who (-ouiiscd war; 'we are decreed, IGO 

It(!serv(;d, and destined to (itcrnal woe; 

Whatever doing, what can we suffer more, 

What can we suff(;r worse;?' is this then worst, 

Thus sitting, thus consulting, thus in ai-ms ? 

What when w(! fl(;d a,main, pui-su(!d and strook l(J5 

Wil-h H(;;i,V(;ii's aillieting iiiundci', ;ind besought 

Tin; d(i(;j) to shelter us? this Ibdl then seemed 

A refuge from those wounds. Or when we lay 

(chained on the burning lake? that sure was worse. 

What if the breath that kindhul those grim fires, 170 

Awaked, should blow them into sevenfold rage, 



PARADISE LOST. 45 

And j)lungo iis in the flames? or from above 

Should intermitted vengeanee arm again 

His red right hand to i)lagiie us? WliaJ, if all 

]Ier stores were opened, and this lirnuiment 175 

Of Hell should spout her eataraets of fire, 

Impendent horrors, threatening hideous fall 

One day upon our heads; while w(i p(!rhai)s. 

Designing or exhorting glorious war, 

Caught in a ii(uy tem[)est shall l)e hurhid, 180 

Each on his rock transfixed, the sport a,ii(l pr(;y 

Of racking whirlwinds, or forever sunk 

Under yon boiling ocean, wrn,})t in (iliains; 

Th(!rc to conv(!rse with everlasting groans, 

lJnresj)it(Ml, unpiticd, uure])ricved, 185 

Ages of h()])cless end! This would be worse. 

War thei-(!fore, open oi* (concealed, alikci 

My voice dissuades; for what can foi'ce or guile 

With him, or who deceive his mind, whose eye 

Views all things at one view? He from Hc^aven's licught 

All these our motions vain sees and derides, 191 

Not moi-e almighty to resist our might 

Than wis(5 to frustrate all our plots and \vil(;s. 

Shall we then live thus vile, tin; race <jf Ibiaven 

Thus tra,mpled, thus expelled to suffer h(;re 105 

Chains and these toi-ments ? J^etter these than worse, 

r>y my advice; sinc(! fate in(;vita})le 

Suixlues us, and omni])otent de(;r(M!, 

The victor's will. 'I\) suff<u-, as to do, 

Our strength is cfjual, nor the law unjust 200 

That so ordaJns: this was at first rcisolved, 

If we were wise, against so great a foe 

Contending, and so doubtful what might fall. 

I laugh, when those who at the spear jire bold 

And vent'rous, if that fail them, shrink, and fear 205 

What yet they know must follow — to endure 



46 JOHN MILTON. 

Exile, or ignominy, or bonds, or pain. 

The sentence of their conqueror. This is now 

Our doom ; which if we can sustain and bear, 

Our supreme foe in time may much remit 210 

His anger, and perhaps, thus far removed. 

Not mind us not offending, satisfied 

With what is punished ; whence these raging fires 

Will slacken, if his breath stir not their flames. 

Our purer essence then will overcome 215 

Their noxious vapor, or inured not feel. 

Or changed at length, and to the place conformed 

In temper and in nature, will receive 

Familiar the fierce heat, and void of pain ; 

This horror will grow mild, this darkness light ; 220 

Besides what hope the never-ending flight 

Of future days may bring, what chance, what change 

Worth waiting, since our present lot appears 

For happy though but ill, for ill not worst. 

If we procure not to ourselves more woe." 225 

Thus Belial, with words clothed in reason's garb, 
Counseled ignoble ease and peaceful sloth. 
Not peace ; and after him thus Mammon spake : 

" Either to disenthrone the King of Heaven 
W^e war, if war be best, or to regain 230 

Our own right lost : him to unthrone we then 
May hope, when everlasting Fate shall yield 
To fickle Chance, and Chaos judge the strife. 
The former, vain to hope, argues as vain 
The latter ; for what place can be for us 235 

W^ithin Heaven's bound, unless Heaven's Lord supreme 
We overpower ? Suppose he should relent 
And publish grace to all, on promise made 
Of new subjection; with what eyes could we 
Stand in his presence humble, and receive 240 

Strict laws imposed, to celebrate his throne 



PARADISE LOST. 47 

With warbled hymns, and to his Godhead sing 

Forced Halleluiahs ; while he lordly sits, 

Our envied sovran, and his altar breathes 

Ambrosial odors and ambrosial flowers, 245 

Our servile offerings ? This must be our task 

In Heaven, this our delight ; how wearisome 

Eternity so spent in worship paid 

To whom we hate ! Let us not then pursue. 

By force impossible, by leave obtained 250 

Unacceptable, though in Heaven, our state 

Of splendid vassalage ; but rather seek 

Our own good from ourselves, and from our own 

Live to ourselves, though in this vast recess. 

Free, and to none accountable, preferring 255 

Hard liberty before the easy yoke 

Of servile pomp. Our greatness will appear 

Then most conspicuous, when great things of small. 

Useful of hurtful, prosperous of adverse, 

We can create, and in what place soe'er 260 

Thrive under evil, and work ease out of pain 

Through labor and endurance. This deep world 

Of darkness do we dread ? How oft amidst 

Thick clouds and dark doth Heaven's all-ruling Sire 

Choose to reside, his glory unobscured, 265 

And with the majesty of darkness round 

Covers his throne, from whence deep thunders roar, 

Mustering their rage, and Heaven resembles Hell ! 

As he our darkness, cannot we his light 

Lnitate when we please ? This desert soil 270 

Wants not her hidden luster, gems and gold; 

Nor want we skill or art, from whence to raise 

Magnificence ; and what can Heaven show more ? 

Our torments also may in length of time 

Become our elements, these piercing fires 275 

As soft as now severe, our temper changed 



48 JOHN MILTON. 

Into their temper ; which must needs remove 

The sensible of pain. All things invite 

To peaceful counsels, and the settled state 

Of order, how in safety best we may 280 

Compose our present evils, with regard 

Of what we are and where, dismissing quite 

All thoughts of war. Ye have what I advise." 

He scarce had finished, when such murmur filled 
The assembly, as when hollow rocks retain 285 

The sound of blustering winds, which all night long 
Had roused the sea, now with hoarse cadence lull 
Seafaring men o'erwatched, whose bark by chance. 
Or pinnace, anchors in a craggy bay 

After the tempest : such applause was heard 290 

As Mammon ended, and his sentence pleased, 
Advising peace ; for such another field 
They dreaded worse than Hell ; so much the fear 
Of thunder and the sword of Michael 

Wrought still within them ; and no less desire 295 

To found this nether empire, which might rise. 
By policy, and long process of time. 
In emulation opposite to Heaven. 
Which when Beelzebub perceived, than whom, 
Satan except, none higher sat, with grave 300 

Aspect he rose, and in his rising seemed 
A pillar of state ; deep on his front engraven 
Deliberation sat and public care ; 
And princely counsel in his face yet shone. 
Majestic though in ruin. Sage he stood, 305 

With Atlantean shoulders fit to bear 
The weight of mightiest monarchies ; his look 
Drew audience and attention still as night 
Or summer's noontide air, while thus he spake : 

"Thrones and imperial Powers, Offspring of Heaven, 310 
Ethereal Virtues ! or these titles now 



PARADISE LOST. 49 

Must we renounce, and, changing style, be called 

Princes of Hell ? for so the popular vote 

Inclines, here to continue, and build up here 

A growing empire — doubtless ! while we dream, 315 

And know not that the King of Heaven hath doomed 

This place our dungeon, not our safe retreat 

Beyond his potent arm, to live exempt 

From Heaven's high jurisdiction, in new league 

Banded against his throne, but to remain 320 

In strictest bondage, though thus far removed, 

Under the inevitable curb, reserved 

His captive multitude. For he, be sure. 

In height or depth, still first and last will reign 

Sole king, and of his kingdom lose no part 325 

By our revolt, but over Hell extend 

His empire, and with iron scepter rule 

Us here, as Avith his golden those in Heaven. 

What sit we then projecting peace and war ? 

War hath determined us, and foiled with loss 330 

Irreparable ; terms of peace yet none 

Vouchsafed or sought ; for what peace will be given 

To us enslaved, but custody severe. 

And stripes, and arbitrary punishment 

Inflicted ? and what peace can we return, 335 

But, to our power, hostility and hate, 

Untamed reluctance, and revenge, though slow, 

Yet ever plotting how the conqueror least 

May reap his conquest, and may least rejoice 

In doing what we most in suffering feel ? 340 

Nor will occasion want, nor shall we need 

With dangerous expedition to invade 

Heaven, whose high walls fear no assault or siege, 

Or ambush from the deep. What if we find 

Some easier enterprise ? There is a place 345 

(If ancient and prophetic fame in Heaven 



50 JOHN MILTON. 

Err not), another world, the happy seat 

Of some new race called Man, about this time 

To be created like to us, though less 

In power and excellence, but favored more 350 

Of him who rules above ; so was his will 

Pronounced among the gods, and by an oath. 

That shook Heaven's whole circumference, confirmed. 

Thither let us bend all our thoughts, to learn 

What creatures there inhabit, of what mold, 355 

Or substance, how endued, and what their power, 

And where their weakness, how attempted best, 

By force or subtlety. Though Heaven be shut, 

And Heaven's high Arbitrator sit secure 

In his own strength, this place may lie exposed, 360 

The utmost border of his kingdom, left 

To their defense who hold it ; here, perhaps, 

Some advantageous act may be achieved 

By sudden onset : either with Hell-fire 

To waste his whole creation, or possess 365 

All as our own, and drive, as we are driven. 

The/ puny habitants ; or if not drive. 

Seduce them to our party, that their God 

May prove their foe, and with repenting hand 

Abolish his own works. This would surpass 370 

Common revenge, and interrupt his joy 

In our confusion, and our joy upraise 

In his disturbance ; when his darling sons. 

Hurled headlong to partake with us, shall curse 

Their frail original, and faded bliss, 375 

Faded so soon ! Advise if this be worth 

Attempting, or to sit in darkness here 

Hatching vain empires." Thus Beelzebub 

Pleaded his devilish counsel, first devised 

By Satan, and in part proposed ; for whence, 380 

But from the author of all ill, could spring 



PARADISE LOST. 61 

So deep a malice, to confound the race 

Of Mankind in one root, and Earth with Hell 

To mingle and involve, done all to spite 

The great Creator ? But their spite still serves 385 

His glory to augment. The bold design 

Pleased highly those infernal States, and joy 

Sparkled in all their eyes ; with full assent 

They vote : whereat his speech he thus renews : 

" Well have ye judged, well ended long debate, 390 

Synod of gods, and, like to what ye are. 
Great things resolved ; which from the lowest deep 
Will once more lift us up, in spite of fate. 
Nearer our ancient seat ; perhaps in view 
Of those bright confines, whence, with neighboring arms 395 
And opportune excursion, we may chance 
E,e-enter Heaven ; or else in some mild zone 
Dwell not unvisited of Heaven's fair light. 
Secure, and at the brightening orient beam 
Purge off this gloom ; the soft delicious air, 400 

To heal the scar of these corrosive fires, 
Shall breathe her balm. But first, whom shall we send 
In search of this new world ? whom shall we find 
Sufficient ? who shall tempt with wandering feet 
The dark, unbottomed, infinite Abyss, 405 

And through the palpable obscure find out 
His uncouth way, or spread his airy flight. 
Upborne with indefatigable wings 
Over the vast abrupt, ere he arrive 

The happy isle ? What strength, what art, can then 4io 
Suffice, or what evasion bear him safe 
Through the strict senteries and stations thick 
Of Angels watching round ? Here he had need 
All circumspection, and we now no less 
Choice in our suffrage ; for on whom we send 415 

The weight of all, and our last hope, relies." 



62 JOHN MILTON. 

This said, he sat ; and expectation held 
His look suspense, awaiting who appeared 
To second, or oppose, or undertake 

The perilous attempt ; but all sat mute, 420 

Pondering the danger with deep thoughts ; and each 
In other's countenance read his own dismay. 
Astonished. None among the choice and prime 
Of those Heaven-warring champions could be found 
So hardy as to proffer or accept, 425 

Alone, the dreadful voyage ; till at last 
Satan, whom now transcendent glory raised 
Above his fellows, with monarchal pride 
Conscious of highest worth, unmoved thus spake : 

" Progeny of Heaven, empyreal Thrones ! 430 

With reason hath deep silence and demur 
Seized us, though undismayed. Long is the way 
And hard, that out of Hell leads up to light ; 
Our prison strong, this huge convex of fire. 
Outrageous to devour, immures us round 435 

Ninefold, and gates of burning adamant, 
Barred over us, prohibit all egress. 
These passed, if any pass, the void profound 
Of unessential Night receives him next, 
Wide-gaping, and with utter loss of being 440 

Threatens him, plunged in that abortive gulf. 
H thence he 'scape into whatever world. 
Or unknown region, what remains him less 
Than unknown dangers and as hard escape ? 
But I should ill become this throne, Peers, 445 

And this imperial sovranty, adorned 
With splendor, armed with power, if aught proposed 
And judged with public moment, in the shape 
Of difficulty or danger, could deter 

Me from attempting. Wherefore do I assume 450 

These royalties, and not refuse to reign, 



PARADISE LOST. 63 

Kefusing to accept as great a share 
Of hazard as of honor, due alike 
To him who reigns and so much to him due 
Of hazard more, as he above the rest 455 

High honored sits ? Go therefore, mighty Powers, 
Terror of Heaven, though fallen ; intend at home, 
While here shall be our home, what best may ease 
The present misery, and render Hell 

More tolerable ; if there be cure or charm 460 

To respite, or deceive, or slack the pain 
Of this ill mansion ; intermit no watch 
Against a wakeful foe, while I abroad 
Through all the coasts of dark destruction seek 
Deliverance for us all : this enterprise 465 

None shall partake with me." Thus saying, rose 
The Monarch, and prevented all reply ; 
Prudent, lest, from his resolution raised. 
Others among the chief might offer now 
(Certain to be refused) what erst they feared, 470 

And, so refused, might in opinion stand 
His rivals, winning cheap the high repute 
Which he through hazard huge must earn. But they 
Dreaded not more the adventure than his voice 
Forbidding ; and at once with him they rose ; 475 

Their rising all at once was as the sound 
Of thunder heard remote. Towards him they bend 
With awful reverence prone ; and as a god 
Extol him equal to the Highest in Heaven. 
Nor failed they to express how much they praised 480 

That for the general safety he despised 
His own ; for neither do the Spirits damned 
Lose all their virtue ; lest bad men should boast 
Their specious deeds on Earth, which glory excites. 
Or close ambition varnished o'er with zeal. 485 

Thus they their doubtful consultations dark 



54 JOHN MILTON. 

Ended, rejoicing in their matchless Chief: 

As when from mountain-tops the dusky clouds 

Ascending, while the North-wind sleeps, o'erspread 

Heaven's cheerful face, the low'ring element 

Scowls o'er the darkened landscape snow or shower ; 

If chance the radiant sun with farewell sweet 

Extend his evening beam, the fields revive, 

The birds their notes renew, and bleating herds 

Attest their joy, that hill and valley rings. 

shame to men ! Devil with devil damned 

Eirm concord holds, men only disagree 

Of creatures rational, though under hope 

Of heavenly grace ; and, God proclaiming peace, 

Yet live in hatred, enmity, and strife 

Among themselves, and levy cruel wars. 

Wasting the Earth, each other to destroy : 

As if (which might induce us to accord) 

Man had not hellish foes enow besides. 

That day and night for his destruction wait ! 

The Stygian council thus dissolved; and forth 
In order came the grand infernal Peers ; 
Midst came their mighty Paramount, and seemed 
Alone the antagonist of Heaven, nor less 
Than Hell's dread Emperor, with pomp supreme. 
And god-like imitated state ; him round 
A globe of fiery Seraphim inclosed 
With bright emblazonry, and horrent arms. 
Then of their session ended they bid cry 
With trumpet's regal sound the great result : 
Toward the four winds four speedy Cherubim 
Put to their mouths the sounding alchymy. 
By Harald's voice explained ; the hollow Abyss 
Heard far and wide, and all the host of Hell . 
With deafening shout returned them loud acclaim. 
Thence more at ease their minds and somewhat raised 



PAKADISE LOST. 55 

By false presumptuous hope, the ranged powers 
Disband ; and, wandering, each his several way- 
Pursues, as inclination or sad choice 

Leads him perplexed, where he may likeliest find 525 

Truce to his restless thoughts, and entertain 
The irksome hours till his great Chief return. 
Part on the plain, or in the air sublime. 
Upon the wing or in swift race contend. 
As at the Olympian games or Pythian fields ; 530 

Part curb their fiery steeds, or shun the goal 
With rapid wheels, or fronted brigads form : 
As when, to warn proud cities, war appears 
Waged in the troubled sky, and armies rush 
To battle in the clouds ; before each van 535 

Prick forth the airy knights, and couch their spears. 
Till thickest legions close ; with feats of arms 
From either end of Heaven the welkin burns. 
Others, with vast Typhoean rage more fell. 
Rend up both rocks and hills, and ride the air 540 

In whirlwind ; Hell scarce holds the wild uproar : 
As when Alcides, from Qi]chalia crowned 
With conquest, felt the envenomed robe, and tore 
Through pain up by the roots Thessalian pines, 
And Lichas from the top of (Eta threw 545 

Into the Euboic sea. Others more mild, 
Ketreated in a silent valley, sing 
With notes angelical to many a harp 
Their own heroic deeds and hapless fall 
By doom of battle ; and complain that Fate 550 

Free Virtue should enthrall to Force or Chance. 
Their song was partial, but the harmony 
(What could it less when Spirits immortal sing ?) 
Suspended Hell, and took with ravishment 
The thronging audience. In discourse more sweet 555 

(For eloquence the soul, song charms the sense) 



56 JOHN MILTON. 

Others apart sat on a hill retired, 

In thoughts more elevate, and reasoned high 

Of providence, foreknowledge, Avill, and fate, 

Fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute, 560 

And found no end, in wandering mazes lost. 

Of good and evil much they argued then, 

Of happiness and final misery. 

Passion and apathy, and glory and shame, 

Vain wisdom all, and false philosophy ! 565 

Yet with a pleasing sorcery could charm 

Pain for a while or anguish, and excite 

Fallacious hope, or arm the obdured breast 

With stubborn patience as with triple steel. 

Another part, in squadrons and gross bands, 570 

On bold adventure to discover wide 

That dismal world, if any clime perhaps 

Might yield them easier habitation, bend 

Four ways their flying march, along the banks 

Of four infernal rivers that disgorge 575 

Into the burning lake their baleful streams : 

Abhorred Styx, the flood of deadly hate; 

Sad Acheron of sorrow, black and deep ; 

Cocytus, named of lamentation loud 

Heard on the rueful stream ; fierce Phlegethon, 580 

Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage. 

Far off from these a slow and silent stream, 

Lethe, the river of oblivion, rolls 

Her watery labyrinth, whereof who drinks 

Forthwith his former state and being forgets, 585 

Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain. 

Beyond this flood a frozen continent 

Lies dark and wild, beat with perpetual storms 

Of whirlwind and dire hail, which on firm land 

Thaws not, but gathers heap, and ruin seems 590 

Of ancient pile ; all else deep snow and ice. 



PARADISE LOST. 57 

A gulf profound as that Serbonian bog 

Betwixt Damiata and Mount Casius old, 

Where armies whole have sunk : the parching air 

Burns frore, and cold performs the effect of fire. 595 

Thither, by harpy-footed Furies haled, 

At certain revolutions all the damned 

Are brought ; and feel by turns the bitter change 

Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce. 

From beds of raging fire to starve in ice 600 

Their soft ethereal warmth, and there to pine 

Immovable, infixed, and frozen round. 

Periods of time ; thence hurried back to fire. 

They ferry over this Lethean sound 

Both to and fro, their sorrow to augment, 605 

And wish and struggle, as they pass, to reach 

The tempting stream, with one small drop to lose 

In sweet forgetfulness all pain and woe. 

All in one moment, and so near the brink ; 

But Fate withstands, and, to oppose the attempt, 610 

Medusa with Gorgonian terror guards 

The ford, and of itself the water flies 

All taste of living wight, as once it fled 

The lip of Tantalus. Thus roving on 

In confused march forlorn, the adventrous bands, 615 

With shuddering horror pale, and eyes aghast, 

Viewed first their lamentable lot, and found 

No rest. Through many a dark and dreary vale 

They passed, and many a region dolorous. 

O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp, 620 

Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death, 

A universe of death, which God by curse 

Created evil, for evil only good, 

Where all life dies, death lives, and Nature breeds. 

Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things, 625 

Abominable, inutterable, and worse 



68 JOHN MILTON. 

Than fables yet have feigned, or fear conceived, 
Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chinigeras dire. 

Meanwhile the Adversary of God and Man, 
Satan, with thoughts inflamed of highest design, 630 

Puts on swift wings, and toward the gates of Hell 
Explores his solitary flight ; sometimes 
He scours the right hand coast, sometimes the left ; 
Now shaves with level wing the deep, then soars 
Up to the fiery concave towering high. 635 

As when far off at sea a fleet descried 
Hangs in the clouds, by equinoctial winds 
Close sailing from Bengala, or the isles 
Of Ternate and Tidore, whence merchants bring 
Their spicy drugs ; they on the trading flood, 640 

Through the wide Ethiopian to the Cape, 
Ply stemming nightly toward the pole : so seemed 
Far off the flying Fiend. At last appear 
Hell-bounds, high reaching to the horrid roof. 
And thrice threefold the gates ; three folds were brass, 645 
Three iron, three of adamantine rock. 
Impenetrable, impaled with circling fire. 
Yet unconsumed. Before the gates there sat 
On either side a formidable Shape. 

The one seemed woman to the waist, and fair, 650 

But ended foul in many a scaly fold 
Voluminous and vast, a serpent armed 
With mortal sting. About her middle round 
A cry of Hell-hounds never-ceasing barked 
With wide Cerberean mouths full loud, and rung 655 

A hideous peal. . . . 
. . . Far less abhorred than these 

Vexed Scylla, bathing in the sea that parts 660 

Calabria from the hoarse Trinacrian shore ; 
Nor uglier follow the night-hag, when, called 
In secret, riding through the air she comes, 



PARADISE LOST. 59 

Lured witli the smell of infant blood, to dance 

AVith. Lapland witches, while the laboring moon 665 

Eclipses at their charms. The other Shape — 

If shape it might be called that shape had none 

Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb; 

Or substance might be called that shadow seemed, 

For each seemed either — black it stood as Night, 670 

Fierce as ten Furies, terrible as Hell, 

And shook a dreadful dart ; what seemed his head 

The likeness of a kingly crown had on. 

Satan was now at hand, and from his seat 

The monster moving onward came as fast, 675 

With horrid strides ; Hell trembled as he strode. 

The undaunted Fiend what this might be admired, 

Admired, not feared — God and his Son except. 

Created thing naught valued he nor shunned — 

And with disdainful look thus first began : 680 

" Whence and what art thou, execrable Shape, 
That dar'st, though grim and terrible, advance 
Thy miscreated front athwart my way 
To yonder gates ? Through them I mean to pass, 
That be assured, without leave asked of thee. 685 

Retire, or taste thy folly, and learn by proof. 
Hell-born, not to contend with Spirits of Heaven." 

To whom the Goblin, full of wrath, replied : 
" Art thou that Traitor-Angel, art thou he. 
Who first broke peace in Heaven and faith, till then 690 
Unbroken, and in proud rebellious arms 
Drew after him the third part of Heaven's sons. 
Conjured against the Highest, for which both thou 
And they, outcast from God, are here condemned 
To waste eternal days in woe and pain ? 695 

And reckon'st thou thyself with Spirits of Heaven, 
Hell-doomed, and breath' st defiance here and scorn. 
Where I reign king, and, to enrage thee more. 



60 JOHN MILTON. 

Thy king and lord ? Back to thy punishment, 

False fugitive, and to thy speed add wings, 700 

Lest with a whip of scorpions I pursue 

Thy lingering, or with one stroke of this dart 

Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt before." 

So spake the grisly Terror, and in shape, 
So speaking and so threatening, grew tenfold 705 

More dreadful and deform. On the other side, 
Incensed with indignation, Satan stood 
Unterrified, and like a comet burned 
That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge 
In the arctic sky, and from his horrid hair 710 

Shakes pestilence and war. Each at the head 
Leveled his deadly aim ; their fatal hands 
No second stroke intend ; and such a frown 
Each cast at th' other, as when two black clouds, 
With Heaven's artillery fraught, come rattling on 715 

Over the Caspian, then stand front to front 
Hovering a space, till winds the signal blow 
To join their dark encounter in mid-air: 
So frowned the mighty combatants, that Hell 
Grew darker at their frown ; so matched they stood ; 720 
For never but once more was either like 
To meet so great a foe. And now great deeds 
Had been achieved, whereof all Hell had rung, 
Had not the snaky Sorceress, that sat 

Fast by Hell-gate and kept the fatal key, 725 

Risen, and with hideous outcry rushed between. 

'' father, what intends thy hand," she cried, 
" Against thy only son ? What fury, son. 
Possesses thee to bend that mortal dart 
Against thy father's head ? and know'st for whom ; 730 

For him who sits above, and laughs the while 
At thee ordained his drudge, to execute 
Whate'er his wrath, which he calls justice, bids — 



PARADISE LOST. 61 

His wrath, which, one clay will destroy ye both ! " 

She spake, and at her words the hellish Pest 735 

Forbore ; then these to her Satan returned : 

" So strange thy outcry, and thy words so strange 
Thou interposest, that my sudden hand. 
Prevented, spares to tell thee yet by deeds 
What it intends, till first I know of thee 740 

What thing thou art, thus double-formed, and why, 
In this infernal vale first met, thou call'st 
Me father, and that phantasm call'st my son. 
I know thee not, nor ever saw till now 
Sight more detestable than him and thee." 745 

To whom thus the Portress of Hell-gate replied : 
" Hast thou forgot me then, and do I seem 
Now in thine eye so foul ? once deemed so fair 
In Heaven, when at the assembly, and in sight 
Of all the Seraphim with thee combined 750 

In bold conspiracy against Heaven's King, 
All on a sudden miserable pain 
Surprised thee ; dim thine eyes, and dizzy swum 
In darkness, while thy head flames thick and fast 
Threw forth, till on the left side opening wide, 755 

Likest to thee in shape and countenance bright. 
Then shining Heavenly-fair, a goddess armed. 
Out of thy head I sprung. Amazement seized 
All the host of Heaven ; back they recoiled afraid 
At first, and called me Sin, and for a sign 760 

Portentous held me ; but, familiar grown, 
I j)leased, and with attractive graces won 
The most averse, thee chiefly, who full oft 
Thyself in me thy perfect image viewing 
Becam'st enamored ; . • . 765 

. . . Meanwhile war arose, 

And fields were fought in Heaven ; wherein remained 
(For what could else ?) to our almighty foe 



62 JOHN MILTON. 

Clear victory ; to our part loss and rout 770 

Through all the Empyrean. Down they fell, 

Driven headlong from the pitch of Heaven, down 

Into this deep ; and in the general fall 

I also : at which time this powerful key 

Into my hands was given, with charge to keep 775 

These gates for ever shut, which none can pass 

AVithout my opening. Pensive here I sat 

Alone. . . . 

Distorted, all my nether shape thus grew 

Transformed ; but he, my imbred enemy, 785 

Forth issued, brandishing his fatal dart, 

Made to destroy. I fled, and cried out Death! 

Hell trembled at the hideous name, and sighed 

From all her caves, and back resounded Death ! 

Before mine eyes in opposition sits 

Grim Death, my son and foe, who sets them on, 

And me, his parent, would full soon devour 805 

For want of other prey, but that he knows 

His end with mine involved, and knows that I 

Should prove a bitter morsel, and his bane. 

Whenever that shall be ; so Fate pronounced. 

But thou, father, I forewarn thee, shun 810 

His deadly arrow ; neither vainly hope 

To be invulnerable in those bright arms. 

Though tempered heavenly ; for that mortal dint, 

Save he who reigns above, none can resist." 

She finished ; and the subtle Fiend his lore 815 

Soon learned, now milder, and thus answered smooth : 

" Dear daughter — since thou claim'st me for thy sire, — 

I come no enemy, but to set free 

From out this dark and dismal house of pain 

Both him and thee, and all the Heavenly host 



PARADISE LOST. 63 

Of Spirits that, in our just pretenses armed, 825 

Fell with us from on high. From them I go 

This uncouth errand sole, and one for all 

Myself expose, with lonely steps to tread 

The unfounded deep, and through the void immense 

To search with wandering quest a place foretold 830 

Should be, and, by concurring signs, ere now 

Created vast and round, a place of bliss 

In the purlieus of Heaven, and therein placed 

A race of upstart creatures, to supply 

Perhaps our vacant room, though more removed, 835 

Lest Heaven, surcharged with potent multitude, 

Might hap to move new broils. Be this, or aught 

Than this more secret, now designed, I haste 

To know; and, this once known, shall soon return. 

And bring ye to the place where thou and Death 840 

Shall dwell at ease, and up and down unseen 

Wing silently the buxom air, embalmed 

With odors : there ye shall be fed and filled 

Immeasurably ; all things shall be your prey." 

He ceased, for both seemed highly pleased, and Death 845 
Grinned horrible a ghastly smile, to hear 
His famine should be filled, and blessed his maw 
Destined to that good hour. No less rejoiced 
His mother bad, and thus bespake her sire : 

" The key of this infernal pit, by due 850 

And by command of Heaven's all-powerful King, 
I keep, by him forbidden to unlock 
These adamantine gates ; against all force 
Death ready stands to interpose his dart, 
Fearless to be o'ermatched by living might. 855 

But what owe I to his commands above. 
Who hates me, and hath hither thrust me down 
Into this gloom of Tartarus profound, 
To sit in hateful ofiice here confined. 



64 JOHN MILTON. 

Inhabitant of Heaven and Heavenly-born, 860 

Here in perpetual agony and pain, 

With terrors and with clamors compassed round 

Of mine own brood, that on my bowels feed ? 

Thou art my father, thou my author, thou 

My being gav'st me ; whom should I obey 865 

But thee ? whom follow ? Thou Avilt bring me soon 

To that new world of light and bliss, among 

The gods Avho live at ease, where I shall reign 

At thy right hand voluptuous, as beseems 

Thy daughter and thy darling, without end." 870 

Thus saying, from her side the fatal key. 
Sad instrument of all our woe, she took ; 
And, towards the gate rolling her bestial train, 
Forthwith the huge portcullis high up-drew, 
Which but herself not all the Stygian powers 875 

Could once have moved ; then in the keyhole turns 
The intricate wards, and every bolt and bar 
Of massy iron or solid rock with ease 
Unfastens : on a sudden open fly. 

With impetuous recoil and jarring sound, 880 

The infernal doors, and on their hinges grate 
Harsh thunder, that the lowest bottom shook 
Of Erebus. She opened, but to shut 
Excelled her power ; the gates wide open stood, 
That with extended wings a bannered host, 885 

Under spread ensigns marching, might pass through 
With horse. and chariots ranked in loose array; 
So wide they stood, and like a furnace-mouth 
Cast forth redounding smoke and ruddy flame. 
Before their eyes in sudden view appear 890 

The secrets of the hoary deep, a dark 
Illimitable ocean, without bound. 

Without dimension ; where length, breadth, and height. 
And time, and place, are lost ; where eldest Night 



PARADISE LOST. 65 

And Chaos, ancestors of Nature, hold 895 

Eternal anarchy, amidst the noise 

Of endless wars, and by confusion stand. 

For Hot, Cold, Moist, and Dry, four champions fierce. 

Strive here for mastery, and to battle bring 

Their embryon atoms ; they around the flag 900 

Of each his faction, in their several clans, 

Light-armed or heavy, sharp, smooth, swift, or slow. 

Swarm populous, unnumbered as the sands 

Of Barca or Cyrene's torrid soil, 

Levied to side with warring winds, and poise 905 

Their lighter wings. To whom these most adhere 

He rules a moment ; Chaos umpire sits, 

And by decision more embroils the fray 

By which he reigns ; next him, high arbiter. 

Chance governs all. Into this wild Abyss, 910 

The womb of Nature, and perhaps her grave. 

Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire, 

But all these in their pregnant causes mixed 

Confusedly, and which thus must ever fight, 

Unless the Almighty Maker them ordain 915 

His dark materials to create more worlds — 

Into this wild Abyss the wary Fiend 

Stood on the brink of Hell and looked a while. 

Pondering his voyage ; for no narrow frith 

He had to cross. Nor was his ear less pealed 920 

With noises loud and ruinous (to compare 

Great things with small) than when Bellona storms. 

With all her battering engines bent to rase 

Some capital city ; or less than if this frame 

Of Heaven were falling, and these elements 925 

In mutiny had from her axle torn 

The steadfast Earth. At last his sail-broad vans 

He spreads for flight, and in the surging smoke 

Uplifted spurns the ground ; thence many a league, 



6Q JOHN MILTON. 

As in a cloudy chair, ascending rides 930 

Audacious ; but, that seat soon failing, meets 

A vast vacuity : all unawares. 

Fluttering his pennons vain, plumb-down he drops 

Ten thousand fathom deep, and to this hour 

Down had been falling, had not by ill chance 935 

The strong rebuff of some tumultuous cloud, 

Instinct with fire and niter, hurried him 

As many miles aloft ; that fury stayed — 

Quenched in a boggy Syrtis, neither sea, 

Nor good dry land — nigh foundered, on he fares 940 

Treading the crude consistence, half on foot. 

Half flying ; behoves him now both oar and sail. 

As when a gryphon through the wilderness 

With winged course, o'er hill or moory dale. 

Pursues the Arimaspian, who by stealth 945 

Had from his wakeful custody purloined 

The guarded gold : so eagerly the Fiend 

O'er bog or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare. 

With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way. 

And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies. • 950 

At length a universal hubbub wild 

Of stunning sounds and voices all confused. 

Borne through the hollow dark, assaults his ear 

With loudest vehemence. Thither he plies 

Undaunted, to meet there whatever Power 955 

Or Spirit of the nethermost Abyss 

Might in that noise reside, of whom to ask 

Which way the nearest coast of darkness lies 

Bordering on light ; when straight behold the throne 

Of Chaos, and his dark pavilion spread 960 

Wide on the wasteful Deep ! With him enthroned 

Sat sable-vested Night, eldest of things. 

The consort of his reign ; and by them stood 

Orcus and Ades, and the dreaded name 



PARADISE LOST. 67 

Of Demogorgon ; Rumor next and Chance, 965 

And Tumult and Confusion all embroiled, 
And Discord with a thousand various mouths. 

To whom Satan, turning boldly, thus : " Ye Powers 
And Spirits of this nethermost Abyss, 

Chaos and ancient Night, I come no spy, 970 

With purpose to explore or to disturb 
The secrets of your realm ; but, by constraint 
Wandering this darksome desert, as my way 
Lies through your spacious empire up to light, 
Alone and without guide, half lost, I seek, 975 

What readiest path leads where your gloomy bounds 
Confine with Heaven ; or if some other place, 
From your dominion won, the Ethereal King 
Possesses lately, thither to arrive 

I travel this profound. Direct my course : 980 

Directed, no mean recompense it brings 
To your behoof, if I that region lost. 
All usurpation thence expelled, reduce 
To original darkness and your sway 

(Which is my present journey), and once more 985 

Erect the standard there of ancient Night. 
Yours be the advantage all, mine the revenge ! " 

Thus Satan ; and him thus the Anarch old. 
With faltering speech and visage incomposed. 
Answered : " I know thee, stranger, who thou art, 990 

That mighty leading Angel, who of late 
Made head against Heaven's King, though overthrown. 
I saw and heard ; for such a numerous host 
Eled not in silence through the frighted deep. 
With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout, 995 

Confusion worse confounded ; and Heaven-gates 
Poured out by millions her victorious bands. 
Pursuing. I upon my frontiers here 
Keep residence ; if all I can will serve 



68 JOHN MILTON. 

That little which is left so to defend, 1000 

Encroached on still through our intestine broils 

Weakening the scepter of old Night : first Hell, 

Your dungeon, stretching far and w*ide beneath ; 

Now lately Heaven and Earth, another world 

Hung o'er my realm, linked in a golden chain 1005 

To that side Heaven from whence your legions fell. 

If that way be your walk, you have not far ; 

So much the nearer danger. Go, and speed ! 

Havoc, and spoil, and ruin, are my gain." 

He ceased ; and Satan stayed not to reply, 1010 

But, glad that now his sea should find a shore, 
With fresh alacrity and force renewed 
Springs upward, like a pyramid of fire. 
Into the wild expanse, and through the shock 
Of fighting elements, on all sides round 1015 

Environed, wins his way ; harder beset 
And more endangered, than when Argo passed 
Through Bosporus betwixt the justling rocks ; 
Or when Ulysses on the larboard shunned 
Chary bdis, and by the other whirlpool steered : 1020 

So he with difficulty and labor hard 
Moved on, with difficulty and labor he ; 
But, he once passed, soon after, when Man fell. 
Strange alteration ! Sin and Death amain. 
Following his track (such was the will of Heaven) 1025 

Paved after him a broad and beaten way 
Over the dark Abyss, whose boiling gulf 
Tamely endured a bridge of wondrous length. 
From Hell continued, reaching the utmost orb 
Of this frail world ; by which the Spirits perverse 1030 

With easy intercourse pass to and fro 
To tempt or punish mortals, except whom 
God and good Angels guard by special grace. 

But now at last the sacred influence 



PAEADISE LOST. 69 

Of light appears, and from the walls of Heaven 1035 

Shoots far into the bosom of dim Night 

A glimmering dawn. Here Nature first begins 

Her farthest verge, and Chaos to retire, 

As from her outmost works, a broken foe, 

With tumult less and with less hostile din ; 1040 

That Satan with less toil, and now with ease, 

Wafts on the calmer wave by dubious light, 

And, like a weather-beaten vessel, holds 

Gladly the port, though shrouds and tackle torn ; 

Or in the emptier waste, resembling air, 1045 

Weighs his spread wings, at leisure to behold 

Far off the empyreal Heaven, extended wide 

In circuit, undetermined square or round. 

With opal towers and battlements adorned 

Of living sapphire, once his native seat ; 1050 

And fast by, hanging in a golden chain. 

This pendent world, in bigness as a star 

Of smallest magnitude, close by the moon. 

Thither, full fraught with mischievous revenge, 

Accurst, and in a cursed hour, he hies. 1055 



NOTES 



PARADISE LOST. — BOOKS I. AND 11. 



Book I. The Argument. This First Book proposes, first in brief, 
the whole subject, Man's disobedience, and the loss thereupon of 
Paradise, wherein he was placed : then touches the prime cause of his 
fall, the Serpent, or rather Satan in the Serpent ; who revolting from 
God, and drawing to his side many legions of Angels, was by the com- 
mand of God driven out of Heaven with all his crew into the great 
Deep. Which action passed over, the Poem hastes into the midst 
of things ; presenting Satan with his Angels now fallen into Hell, 
described here, not in the Center (for Heaven and Earth may be sup- 
posed as yet not made, certainly not yet accursed) but in a place of 
utter darkness, fitliest called Chaos : here Satan with his Angels lying 
on the burning lake, thunderstruck and astonished, after a certain 
space recovers, as from confusion ; calls up him who, next in order 
and dignity, lay by him ; they confer of their miserable fall. Satan 
awakens all his legions, who lay till then in the same manner con- 
founded; they rise : their numbers, array of battle, their chief leaders, 
named according to the idols known afterwards in Caanan and the 
countries adjoining. To these Satan directs his speech ; comforts 
them with hope yet of regaining Heaven ; but tells them lastly of a 
new world and new kind of creature to be created, according to an 
ancient prophecy or report in Heaven ; for that there were Angels long 
before this visible creation was the opinion of many ancient Fathers. 
To find out the truth of this prophecy, and what to determine thereon, 
he refers to a full council. What his associates thence attempt. Pan- 
demonium, the palace of Satan, rises, suddenly built out of the Deep : 
the infernal Peers there sit in council. 

Line 6. Poets in ancient times invoked the aid of the Muses. 
Milton, however, appeals not to one of the nine Muses, but to the 
Muse of Sacred Song. 

71 



72 NOTES. [Book I. 

Line 15. "Above the Aonian mount." Milton invokes a higher 
aid, the help of the Divine Spirit, whose seat vv^as above Helicon, 
the favorite haunt, in Boeotia, of the nine heathen goddesses called 
the Muses. Siloa's brook, near Mount Zion, is preferred to the foun- 
tain of Aganippe, on Mount Helicon. Read, in this connection, " The 
Spectator," No. 303. 

Line 34. " The infernal Serpent." Genesis iii. 1. 

Line 45. "Hurled headlong." Isaiah xiv. 12. Milton borrows 
much of his imagery from the Old Testament. Read this chapter, 
verses 9-15, as an illustration. 

Line 48. " Adamantine chains. " Spenser: " Together linked in 
adamantine chains." 

Line 63. "Darkness visible." Compare Seneca, Ep. 57: " Quse 
nobis prsestant, ut non per tenebras videamiis, sed ut ipsas.''^ 

Line 70. "Place Eternal Justice had prepared." Matt. xxv. 41. 
It is impossible to follow and to understand this poem without frequent 
reference to the Bible. Milton derives not only imagery, but ideas, 
from it. 

Line 84. Compare Hector fallen, "^neid," 11.274 et alii. Eor 
an analysis of Satan's speech, read "The Spectator," No. 303. 

Line 105. " What though the field be lost ? " Such grand speeches 
as this make Satan the hero of this epic. Notice, as you read, how 
he holds out to the very last, in defiance. 

Line 127. " His bold compeer." Beelzebub. Title of a heathen 
deity, to whom the Jews ascribed the sovereignty of the evil spirits. 
Look up references to Beelzebub in Concordance. The student should 
study the differences, in infernal character, given by Milton to Satan 
and his compeers. 

Line 140. " Invincible." Compare the " Prometheus " of -^schy- 
lus, verse 1060. 

Line 153. " What can it then avail ? " Beelzebub thinks, by renew- 
ing allegiance to the Almighty, to escape the severest vengeance. He 
is more willing than Satan to yield. 

Line 157. Consider carefully Satan's argument. 

Line 169. " But see ! the angry victor hath recalled." This touch 
gives dramatic vividness to the situation. The scene opens like a 
picture. Heaven's warriors in the distance. 

Line 181. "Void of light." Compare Dante's "Inferno," V. 28 : 
" Luogo d' ogni luce muto." 

Line 190. " What reinforcement we may gain." Notice the pro- 
found thought in the lines 190, 191. 



Book I. ] NOTES. 73 

Line 195. "Prone on the flood." Dante would have given 
Satan's size in cubits. Milton does better by offering indefinite meas- 
ure to the imagination. Look up the Titans, the hundred-handed 
Briareos (^geeon), and Typhon, in Smith's "Dictionary of Greek 
and Roman Mythology." 

Line 206. "With fixM anchor in his scaly rind." A picture in 
England of a ship anchored on a whale has the motto " Nusquam tuta 
fides:' 

Line 221. "Forthwith upright he rears." Compare lines 210- 
213. Without permission he could not have risen up. Milton shows 
the Almighty as always superior to Satan. 

Line 239. "Both glorying," They do not attribute escape to the 
superior will, although they know the fact. 

Line 250. "Hail, horrors! hail. Infernal world." This exultant 
salutation must not be taken as bravado. It is a genuine Satanic 
acceptance of his new kingdom, as the following lines fully show. 

Line 263. " Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven." Recall 
Julius Caesar's remark : " Better be the first man in a village than the 
second in Rome." 

Line 284. " His ponderous shield." Dr. Johnson (" Lives of 
the Poets," I. 160) says of this passage : " His [Milton's] great ex- 
cellence is amplitude. Thus, comparing the shield of Satan to the 
orb of the Moon, he crowds the imagination with the discovery of the 
telescope, and all the wonders which the telescope discovers." 

Line 288. "Optic glass." Milton visited Galileo at Florence. 
Fesol6 is a hill near Florence. As to Milton's astronomical knowl- 
edge, compare Raphael's words to Adam, "Paradise Lost," VIII. 
160-167. 

Line 292. " His spear." Cowley's "David," Lib. IIL 47 : — 

' ' His spear the trunk was of a lofty tree, 
Which nature meant some tall ship's mast to be." 

Line 307. "Busiris." A fabulous personage. The name is used 
by Milton poetically for Pharaoh. Exodus xiv. 

Line 338. "As when the potent rod 

Of Amram's son." Exodus x. 13-15. 

Line 353. " Rhene or the Danaw." Rhine or Danube. 

Line 384. "Their altars by his altar." Compare 1 Kings xi. 1-8 

Line 392. " First, Moloch." Compare the characteristics of these 
fallen spirits. Read "The Spectator," No. 309. 

Line 418. "Till good Josiah." 2 Kings xxiii. 



74 NOTES. [Book I. 

Line 446. " Thammuz came next behind," Thammuz, a Phoeni- 
cian deity, identified with Adonis. The river Adonis in Asia Minor 
(Turkish, Ibrahim Bassa). A stream discolored by red earth at cer- 
tain seasons of the year. Compare Ezekiel viii. 13, 14. 

Line 460. " Grunsel-edge." Ground-sill. 

Line 484. " The calf in Oreb. " Exodus xxxii. 1-6. 

Line 489. " Bleating gods." Satirical allusion to calf-gods. 

Line 508. "The Ionian gods." Look up these mythological 
beings in any classical dictionary. Jove, Titan, etc. 

Line 550. " Dorian mood." One of the three ancient kinds of 
music inciting to courage. 

Line 551. "Recorders." Ancient musical instrument, like a 
flageolet. 

Line 556. "Swage." Assuage. 

Line 578. "That fought at Thebes and Ilium," etc. In the ten 
consecutive lines, Milton crowds together, as was his custom, innu- 
merable warriors. Is this a fault, or an aid to the imagination ? 

Line 589. "He, above the rest." Compare Dante's "II Purga- 
torio," V. 14. This is one of Milton's finest paragraphs. 

Line 598. " And with fear of change." The ancients looked upon 
eclipses as omens of disaster. Also, " Staring comets, that look 
kingdoms dead." (Crashaw, " Steps to the Temple.") 

Line 609. "Amerced." Punished with a fine. Spenser uses the 
word. Compare Deuteronomy xxii. 19. 

Line 642. "Which tempted our attempt." Addison calls this 
alliteration a blemish in style ; a kind of jingle in words. It is fre- 
quently used by Milton. Ex. gr. " Behemoth, biggest born of earth." 

Line 663. " He spake ; and, to confirm his words." Observe the 
grand style of this passage and its suggestion of ferocious daring. 

Line 679. " Mammon, the least erected Spirit that fell." The god 
of avarice. Notice the striking description in the whole passage. 

Line 711. "Rose like an exhalation." Compare Marlowe's "Did 
like a shooting exhalation glide." (" Hero and Leander.") 

Line 740. " Mulciber." Surname of Vulcan. 

Line 756. "At Pandemonium." Place or palace of all the evil 
spirits. 

Line 774. "Expatiate." Latin, spatior, to walk abroad; later 
meaning, to enlarge upon in language. 

Line 780. "Pygmean race." According to Homer, a race of 
dwarfs, perpetually at war with the cranes. Why does Milton dimin- 
ish the size of the fallen angels ? 



Book 11. ] NOTES. 75 

Line 784. "The moon sits arbitress." Queen or ruler. Compare 
Horace's "Ode," 12,47: — 

" Velut inter ignes, luna, minores." 

Line 793. " And in their own dimensions." Why does the poet 
picture " the great seraphic lords " as retaining their huge bulk ? 

Book II. The Argument. The consultation begun, Satan debates 
whether another battle be to be hazarded for the recovery of Heaven : 
some advise it, others dissuade. A third proposal is preferred, men- 
tioned before by Satan, to search the truth of that prophecy or tradi- 
tion in Heaven concerning another world, and another kind of creature, 
equal, or not much inferior, to themselves, about this time to be 
created. Their doubt who shall be sent on this difficult search : Satan, 
their chief, undertakes alone the voyage ; is honored and applauded. 
The council thus ended, the rest betake them several ways and to 
several employments, as their inclinations lead them, to entertain the 
time till Satan return. He passes on his journey to Hell-gates, finds 
them shut, and who sat there to guard them ; by whom at length they 
are opened, and discover to him the great gulf between Hell and 
Heaven ; with what difficulty he passes through, directed by Chaos, 
the Power of that place, to the sight of this new world which he sought. 

The magnificent conception of Satan and the Fallen Angels, in these 
two Books of "Paradise Lost," is, of course, the product of the poet's 
imagination, founded on slight and obscure references in the Bible ; 
as, for example, in the Epistle of Jude, verse 6: "And the angels 
which kept not their first estate." 

Macaulay, in his "Essay on Milton," defends the poet from Dr. 
Johnson's charge that "Paradise Lost" lacks metaphysical accuracy, 
by saying that " Poetry, which relates to beings of another world, ought 
to be at once mysterious and picturesque." Also, that " it was impos- 
sible for the poet to adopt altogether the material or the immaterial 
system. He therefore took his stand on the debatable ground. He 
left the whole in ambiguity." Macaulay then shows how Milton's 
fiends, unlike the supernatural beings of Dante, "have just enough in 
common with human nature to be intelligible to human beings ; a cer- 
tain dim resemblance to men, but exaggerated to gigantic dimensions 
and veiled in mysterious gloom." 

Taine, in his "English Literature" fVol. I. 452), says: "Milton 
needs the grand and infinite. His eyes are only content in limitless 
space, and he produces colossuses to fill it." 



76 NOTES. [Book II. 

The student may well keep these ideas in mind as he studies these 
splendid creations of genius ; especially in the first and second books, 
where the Argument deals solely with the supernatural. Other por- 
tions of " Paradise Lost" are more pleasing, but (as Coleridge declares) 
"Milton is finer in Hell than in Heaven," although, "finest of all in 
his earthly Paradise." 

Line 1. " High on a throne of royal state." This council of the 
infernal spirits is given by the poet early in the poem, because the 
plan or plot turns on the Satanic proposal to accomplish the ruin of 
mankind. Other great matters, which are chronologically earlier, 
such as the first battle against Satan and his angels and their expul- 
sion from Heaven, are placed in the sixth and seventh books, as an 
episode, to preserve the unity of action in the poem. Read in this 
connection " The Spectator," No. 267. 

The opening passage in Book II. is considered one of the most mag- 
nificent in the poem, and is often quoted. It is also used as an exer- 
cise in elocution. The student will do well to commit it to memory. 

The Latin scholar will find a pleasing similarity of style in the 
second book of Ovid's "Metamorphoses," the first line of which is 

" Regia Solis erat sublimibus alta columnis." 

Book II. of "Paradise Lost" is divided into two parts. The first 
part (lines 1-628 inclusive) describes the consultation or debate, as to 
the best course for the Fallen Spirits to pursue in order to improve 
their condition. The issue presented is peace or war. 

The student should analyze the speeches of Satan, Moloch, Belial, 
Mammon, and Beelzebub, not failing to notice the character of each, 
as manifested in the counsel which is proffered by each. 

Satan's harangue is a demand for continued opposition " whether 
of open war or covert guile," and the height of assumption is reached 
when he speaks of Heaven as " our just inheritance." 

Moloch calls for open war. Better suffer annihilation than dwell 
forever in torment. If annihilation be impossible, then at least revenge. 

Belial counsels submission rather than to invite a worse fate, and 
urges that perhaps the Almighty may in time remit his anger, satis- 
fied with the punishment. Then the raging fires will slacken, and 
Hell's horrors become more mild. 

Mammon argues that it is vain to hope to dethrone Heaven's King. 
Therefore, "rather seek out own good from ourselves, and from our 
own live to ourselves." "Our torments," he declares, "also may in 
length of time become our elements ; . . . nor want we skill or art, 



Book II.] NOTES. 77 

from whence to raise magnificence." Thus, in his view, "All things 
invite to peaceful counsels and the settled state of order, dismissing 
quite all thoughts of war.' ' He is applauded by the fiends for his advice. 

Beelzebub, "Majestic though in ruin," assumes that the Almighty- 
will lose no part of his kingdom by further revolt against Him, and 
suggests "some easier enterprise." He then reveals the existence of 
another world, "the happy seat of some new race called Man." He 
urges the conquest or seduction of the new race, in order that " their 
God may prove their foe, and with repenting hand, abolish his own 
works. This would surpass common revenge and interrupt his joy in 
our confasion." 

This "bold design" pleased the infernals, but when some one was 
called for to undertake the perilous attempt 

". . . all sat mute. 
Pondering the danger with deep thoughts." 

Then Satan assumed the enterprise to seek out the new race of 
man, even though he must pass "through all the coasts of dark de- 
struction." The Stygian council then dissolved. 

This is a mere outline of the debate, which the student may com- 
plete by analyzing the different arguments used by the archfiends, and 
comparing their various suggestions with the characteristics of Mam- 
mon, Moloch, and the rest, as given by Milton in Book I. 

This study will uncover the depth of Milton's wonderful delinea- 
tion of evil characters, and awaken a new interest in the two books, 
which no cursory reading of them can do. It will also furnish themes 
for dissertations or debates of great educational value in the line of 
English composition. 

Line 67. "Black fire." " Ignes atros," Lucan, " Ph." II. 301. 

Line 97. "This essential." Essence, or substance. 

Line 113. " Could make the worse appear the better reason." 
Often quoted. Compare Valerius Flaccus, " Argonautica" Liber 3, 
645 : — 

" potioribus ille 

Deteriora f ovens, semperque inversa tueri 
Durus." 

Line 142. "Our final hope is flat despair." Compare Book I., 
lines 190, 191. 

Line 146. "To be no more.", Compare this and the following 
lines with Shakespeare's " Hamlet," Act III., Scene 1 : " To be or not 



78 NOTES. [Book 11. 

to be, that is the question," and " Measure for Measure," Act III., 
Scene 1, Claudio's answer to Isabel. 

Line 220. "This horror will grow mild," etc. This and the fol- 
lowing line are one of the few instances of rhyme in the poem. 

Line 302. "A pillar of state." Cf. Shakespeare's " Henry VI." 
II. 1. 

Line 348. "Of some new race called Man." Cf. Book VIL 154. 

Line 435. "Immures us round ninefold.''^ Perhaps in harmony 
with the line, " Et novies Styx interfusa coercet." Other authorities 
say that the Styx flows seven times around Hades. 

Line 457. " Intend at home." " Intende animum." 

Line 482. "For neither do the spirits damned." What is the 
reason given by Milton for this assertion ? Is the reason a valid one ? 

Line 513. " Horrent." Bristling with points. 

Line 531. What was Milton's idea of supernatural beings ? See 
Book VI. 344-353 ; V. 574 ; VI. 656 ; V. 407. On this point consult 
" Masterpieces of Michelangelo and Milton," Part 11. Silver, Burdett 
& Company, Publishers. 

Line 542. " Alcides." What is this fable concerning the poisoned 
robe of Hercules ? Who was Lichas ? 

Line 577. "Abhorred Styx." Look up this river in a classical 
dictionary, also Acheron, Cocytus, and Phlegethon. 

Line 623. "For evil only good." Possibly the poet here means 
to affirm that all evil is a means of ultimate good. 

Line 628. " Gorgons and Hydras." Huge monsters of the lower 
regions. "Hydra-headed" is a common simile to denote an evil 
which constantly reappears after being vanquished. " Chimaera" had 
three heads. Virgil places these monsters at the gate of Orcus. 

Line 629. "Meanwhile the Adversary of God and Man." The 
remainder of Book II. is taken up with an account of Satan's journey 
towards the new world, and his meeting with Sin and Death. 

Line 640. "Trading." Treading, in the sense of moving on. 

Line 648. "Before the gates there sat." The shadowy and fic- 
titious beings, Sin and Death, are not, in the opinion of Addison 
("Spectator," No. 273), proper actors in an epic poem. There is 
not the requisite probability annexed to them. They are wholly 
chimerical and impossible. They are not only grotesque, but vulgar. 

Line 655. " Cerberean." What was Cerberus ? 

Line 678. "Admired." Regarded with wonder. Shakespeare, 
" admired disorder." 

Line 692. " The third part of Heaven's sons." Cf. Revelation xii. 4. 



Book II.] NOTES. 79 

Line 693. " Conjured." Summoned by oath. 

Line 708. " Comet." Compare Virgil's "^neid," X. 272. 

Line 727. " O father ! " See line 757. Where did Milton borrow 
the idea in this line ? What full-armed being sprung from the head 
of Jove ? Deriving Sin from Satan, Milton acquits the Almighty of 
originating evil. 

Line 803, " Grim Death, my son and foe." James i. 15. " Foe," 
because created to destroy. 

Line 842. "The buxom air." Compliant. 

Line 870. " Thy daughter and thy darling." Spoken ironically. 

Line 898. " For Hot," etc. Milton transfers here, almost literally, 
Ovid's expression. Liber I., line 19, "Metamorphoses." 

Line 927. " Sail-broad vans." " Pennarum vela," Lucretius VI. 
743. 

Line 942. " Both oar and sail." Compare Book VII. 440. 

Line 945. " Arimaspian." " Prometheus " of ^schylus, V. 810. 
Milton has the habit of referring to mythological personages under 
unusual titles. 

Line 968. ' ' To whom Satan, turning boldly, thus. ' ' Notice Satan's 
skillful appeal for guidance, "Yours be the advantage all, mine the re- 
venge" (line 987). The reply of Chaos is in the same strain of opposi- 
tion to the Almighty, who despoils his realm by creating new worlds. 
Chaos answers Satan, "Go, and speed ! Havoc, and spoil, and ruin, 
are my gain" (lines 1008, 1009). 

Line 1017. " Argo." The ship of the Argonauts, in search of the 
golden fleece. See Art. Cyclopedia. 

Line 1019. "Or when Ulysses." Scylla and Chary bdis, two rocks 
between Italy and Sicily. ("Odyssey" XII.) 

Line 1024. " Sin and Death amain." The bridge from Hell, built 
by Sin and Death, is marvelously constructed. See Book X. 293-320. 

Line 1052. "This pendent world." "Measure for Measure," 
Act III., Scene 1. 

Milton's Satan, Coleridge says, "warring against the Supreme 
Being, seems to contradict the idea of a Supreme Being." But the 
origin of evil was the great controversy of his age, and the poet wished 
to show that evil might arise " out of an act of the will itself." 

But, for all that, Milton has thrown around the character of Satan 
"a grandeur of sufferance and a ruined splendor, which constitute the 
very height of poetic sublimity." (Coleridge's Lecture X.) 

Taine (Book II., Chap. VI.) says of Milton's Satan, that "the 
ridiculous devil of the middle ages, a horned enchanter, a petty and 



80 NOTES. [Book II. 

mischievous ape, has become a giant and a hero. Like a conquered 
and vanquished Cromwell, he remains admired and obeyed by those 
whom he has drawn into the abyss. It was he who in Hell roused his 
dejected troops and planned the ruin of man ; he who, passing the 
guarded gates and thf endless chaos, gained for Hell almost all the sons 
of Adam. Though wounded, he triumphs, for the thunder which 
smote his head, left his heart invincible." 

" . . . . The unconquerable will, 
And study of revenge, immortal hate. 
And courage never to submit or yield." 

"Paradise Lost," Book I. 106-108. 

Thus Satan becomes the hero of Milton's epic, although it must 
always be borne in mind that he is the creation of the poet's imagina- 
tion, rather than the Great Adversary of Man mentioned in the Bible. 



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